Desperate Games Read online

  What followed was much easier and won general consent straight away.

  …These are, Honoured Presidents, very briefly summarised, the results obtained for the section on knowledge. They concern what the world knows thanks to us. Now it is important to emphasise one important observation: in this age-old mental labour, in this uninterrupted sequence of speculations, experiments, methodical reflections, irradited by a few flashes of genius, which constitute in our eyes humanity’s essential task, not one of you, Honoured Presidents, has ever played a part (with the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson).

  You have not participated, any more than the swarm of collaborators who help you in the functions which you are pleased to call governmental, in the fervour which leads us to the conquest of truth, being, most of the time, more ignorant of the accomplishments listed here than the man in the street, who does read from time to time.

  Let us add that you were often not only indifferent but also opposed to this development. You were observed impeding with all your might this movement, which is fortunately irresistible, and you refused to give our research laboratories the funds which you squandered on nonsense or on dangerous and criminal enterprises.

  As a result of your carefree or evil attitude, Honoured Presidents, science has not reached the summits which it ought to and could have done. Hence there is a series of crass omissions in our knowledge, which we want to mention here to our own humiliation and to your shame.

  At the time of writing we do not know the following:

  The secret of the primary mechanisms of the central nervous system.

  Whether the expansion of the universe will continue forever or will be followed by contraction.

  How to cure the common cold.

  What is the precise structure of an atom.

  There followed a list as long as the preceding one, displaying the same absence of logical order, and for the same reasons. The letter concluded with the following passage:

  …All these obscure areas and many more as well are far from being inaccessible to penetration by us, but they require for their exploration the mobilisation of all the material and spiritual resources of our Earth, which you are squandering, and a rational world organisation of scientific research, which you are incapable of even conceiving, in peace and freedom, which are fanciful ideas to your minds.

  This, Honoured Presidents, is what we wish to remind you of concerning knowledge. We made it brief, knowing that such questions are not familiar to you and their range is beyond you. We shall insist further on the second bounty for which the world is indebted to us:

  Concerning Power: Not to mention the earliest inventions such as fire, which could only have been made by scientific minds, we have given you in the course of recent centuries:

  Dynamite.

  Hygiene and Vaccination (the power over death).

  Electricity.

  Antibiotics.

  Atomic Energy, Nuclear Energy, etc.

  There was another long list and the letter concluded with a warning:

  Concerning the conquest of power which has been gradually extracted from Nature, Honoured Presidents, your role counted for nothing, but we have noticed a difference here and a worsening in your case: you accepted these conquests without understanding the essence of them, of course, and without trying to penetrate their significance, but you distorted them in order to make them serve exclusively your own thirst for comfort, your laziness and also, incidentally, the greatest crimes. By that we mean the systematic massacres of those who, in your madness, you identify as strangers.

  Thus, every time one of our discoveries has fallen into your unintelligent or villainous hands (we apologize for the use of these expressions, but we, the Nobels, have weighed them carefully), you did your utmost to divert it from its true significance, and stifle the scientific spirit in which it was conceived, to substitute it finally with a demonic spirit, which the poet has illustrated as follows:

  Fall’n Cherub, to be weak is miserable

  Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,

  To do ought good never will be our task,

  But ever to do ill our sole delight,

  As being the contrary to his high will

  Whom we resist. If then his Providence

  Out of our evil seek to bring forth good

  Our labour must be to pervert that end,

  And out of good still to find means of evil,

  Which oft times may succeed…4

  All the evidence shows that this was a contribution by the literary Nobels. The others had at first frowned and objected to the introduction of poetry into such a document, but they had been determined and up till then they had played such a retiring role, almost a humiliating one, that it was finally agreed to let them have their way. Before the inclusion of this passage indeed, despite their evident good will, and their desire to collaborate, the literary Nobels had had to content themselves with a few rare interventions, and some suggestions which were often dismissed in a bad-tempered way, in order that the common aesthetic ideal might be respected, which they had forged in the course of a life of research. This ideal consisted entirely in the suppression of most attributive adjectives, on the insertion of some elegant simple past tenses where the reader was expecting a present perfect and above all on the replacement of all adverbs ending in ‘-ly’, such as ‘harmoniously’ or ‘exclusively’, by much more satisfactory expressions such as ‘in a harmonious way,’ or ‘in an exclusive fashion’. Innovative minds in this field were even so bold as to suggest replacing the dreadful ‘slowly’ with ‘at a snail’s pace’, but their colleagues had not been willing to go so far.

  Much to their great fury, the literary Nobels had not always managed to win their case and it would have been inhuman to refuse them this innocent satisfaction. Besides, when the meaning of the passage from Milton had been explained to the scientists and they had thought about it, they admitted that the quotation was very relevant: Science could be considered as symbolising the spirit of Goodness, and political forces that of Satan.

  Examples illustrating this point were easy to find.

  …We have given you fire. It was intended to keep you warm in the winter and cook your food. You used it to forge swords and burn down villages.

  We have invented machines to bring relief to humanity. You have transformed them into engines of death, on the earth, the sea and in the air.

  We have given you energy in all its forms. You have used it to raze whole cities to the ground…

  At the conclusion of this warning, Honoured Presidents, we take as proven that you are the least qualified to hold the reins of power in this world or in any of its parts. The depressing outcome of your reigns was that you have worn yourselves out with puerile jealousies, in sterile discussions and wretched quarrels, before destroying whole peoples in deadly wars which were contrary to the scientific spirit, wars which you regarded as being impossible to avoid, after you had done everything to provoke them by your blindness, your ignorance and your recklessness.

  Thus we have arrived at the purpose of this message. Having met in a plenary session, all of us Nobels, the Nobels of science, Nobels of peace, and Nobels of literature, are unanimous in judging that our duty is to terminate a bizarre and dangerous situation.

  We demand of you that you carry out the only action by which you can be of some use to the world: resign, relinquish all your functions and hand them over to Science, which will take on the task of running the Earth in the best interests of all. According to our judgment in fact, Science alone is qualified for this task. The clumsy experiments carried out in the past by other international organisations have all ended in failure, and it was inevitable that it should be so, for their delegates, designated by insane governments, could not help being devoid of intellect and reason.

  Honoured Presidents, we, the Nobels, do not demand power for ourselves. We will make sure that it is entrusted to people who are young enough to demonstrate their dy
namism and authority and who have shown signs of their wisdom and scientific knowledge, which we alone are qualified to judge.

  After your resignation, which we would like to happen immediately on receipt of this letter, and while we wait for the government which the world feels it urgently needs, we shall play the roles of provisional guardians of the administrative organisations as they exist at present, and which you should kindly leave in place. Those chosen by us will then take charge of concentrating the present hotchpotch into a few central coherent ministries.

  We have only a few further remarks to add. Though we are convinced that your conscience will have been touched by these truths and that you are prepared to retire, we have however anticipated a contrary outcome and have made the following arrangements:

  1. With no consideration of our respective nationalities, we have all exchanged the results of our most recent research in our various fields. We would like to emphasise that some of the results would be of special interest to you in the improvement of your offensive and defensive armaments. In addition we have vowed that everything discovered by one of us would be immediately communicated to all the others.

  2. Please be aware also of the following fact, which will probably concern you more for the time being: that a large number of little-known scholars, enlisted by you in the service of your so-called national defence and also a considerable number of technical experts working secretly with the same goals were released by us, the Nobels, from their oaths of secrecy and they have agreed to follow us.

  The following, Honoured Presidents, is the state of affairs at the time of writing:

  Soviet scholars and technical experts not only know about the latest scientific theories developed in the United States, concerning antimatter and cosmic radiation, but also about the practical procedures for the industrial manufacture of our most secret nuclear weapons, their precise range, the precision of the most recently developed American rockets, as well as the number, extent and coordinates, almost to a metre, of their stocks.

  In return, American scholars and technical experts are no less well informed about the military secrets of the Russians, even about the locations of underground shelters for the general staff and the government.

  The same is true (and here we are quoting some random examples discovered by our own initiatives) of mathematicians who are specialists in Chinese numerals, who have complete knowledge of the confidential codes developed by their colleagues in other nations. Elsewhere, Israeli experts in this field are able to decipher in a few minutes the most secret Chinese messages.

  Lastly, as a final sample of the measures we, the Nobels, have taken, to assure the triumph of the scientific revolution and to safeguard the Earth, we wish to inform you that all the studies conducted concerning chemical and bacteriological warfare have now been distributed to laboratories all over the world.

  We have enclosed as attachments to this letter copies of documents considered by you to be top secret (concerning the process of industrial manufacture, the location of various stocks, confidential figures, etc.) which will show you that our assertions are in no way idle boasts.

  We hope, Honoured Presidents, that both reason and our reasons will convince you at the same time of your unworthiness and of the necessity of carrying out the action which we expect, with the least possible delay.

  There followed, in alphabetical order, the signatures of all living Nobels.

  9.

  The date of the world festival was fixed for 1st August, after consultation with meteorological experts, who promised that day would bring sufficiently fine weather conditions on all the continents and glorious weather in New York, where the festival would be celebrated with the greatest pomp, in the presence of the President. Such a festival should obviously be celebrated on the same date in all the towns and villages in the world. The only problem for the scholars was that they would not be able to be everywhere at the same moment, due to the time difference.

  The experts had not been mistaken. A clear sky lit up the former United Nations building when Fawell, the leader of the first world government, came out of it, escorted by several officials, and after a pause in front of the photographers, he took his seat in his car, to go and join the parade.

  The world government had been operating for several months, and had at first found itself facing the problem of residence. After a few hesitations, the United Nations building, which had been emptied in a matter of days of its incompetent occupants and its unusable dusty archives, was chosen as provisional accommodation, while they were waiting for the construction of an imposing centre, worthy of providing a home for the brain and the heart of the world, and for which Fawell was preparing the plans. The choice of New York had not been criticised, as the city provided obvious facilities for communicating with the rest of the world and had long possessed quite an international character, in its population and lifestyle.

  What was perhaps most surprising about the scientific revolution was the ease and rapidity of its success, to such an extent that its developers found themselves confronted sooner than expected with a mass of details which had not yet been studied. Mrs Betty Han’s prediction had been correct: at the start of the twenty-first century, more or less all over our planet, the leaders had become tired of governing, exhausted by their sterile efforts to resolve problems which were beyond their competence, and all the peoples of the world had a vague awareness of the situation. The letter from the Nobels arrived just at the right moment and the evidence contained in it impressed everybody. Their prestige and the weight carried by their unanimity (the internal divisions had been carefully hidden from the public) made an enormous impression. Finally, their initiative in doing away with the concept of essential secrets by bringing down scientific barriers made the positions of heads of state untenable. Almost all of them gave in and handed in their resignation immediately. A few rare ones who resisted were obliged to do the same when they were swept aside by the torrent of public opinion which imperiously demanded that they depart.

  Fawell had won the competition brilliantly. Yranne and Mrs Han tied for second place. In fact the mathematician’s composition raised him a fraction of a point above the psychologist, but the jury agreed with O’Kearn’s opinion: the psychologist deserved to have her mark raised by the same fraction, due to her decision to check herself the integrity of the envelope containing the exam topic, not trusting anyone, not even the Nobels. Such audacity revealed that she had character, and one should take that into account in a test intended to judge suitability to govern. With Zarratoff coming third, the promoters of the scientific world government became its principal members, which was only fair. It was left to Fawell himself to designate his vice-president. After hesitating a little, he chose Yranne, whose clarity of thought and mathematical ability to simplify things he appreciated. These qualities would be valuable in putting the world in order. He reserved the right to seek the advice of Betty often, concerning problems requiring subtlety and a keen psychological sense.

  As soon as he was elected, he started to put into practice the programme which he had outlined in general terms. This started off quite well, but more slowly than he had foreseen. There was no avowed opposition but there was a certain listlessness in carrying out the plans, which worried him. As Yranne could not suggest any remedy for this apathy, he asked Betty for her opinion.

  ‘Lack of enthusiasm,’ she said without hesitation. ‘If you remember, I predicted it. The people certainly respect science, but they don’t have the same feeling for it as we do. The conception they have of it is not sufficient to fire their spirit momentarily and make them increase their efforts. It is necessary to excite their senses.’

  ‘I agree with you completely. We will never achieve anything great without passion, and that is what seems to be lacking. But do you know of any means of arousing such fervour?’

  ‘There are very simple means.’

  And she mentioned several initiatives which, from her ex
perience, ought to be effective. She thought that enthusiasm for a world state could be provoked by a world anthem, a world flag and a world festival of music, a parade and a fireworks display. These measures were discussed during a council of ministers and adopted after a long debate, despite opposition by Zarratoff who disapproved of such childishness.

  As the festival was to be celebrated in all the cities of the world, the members of the government had gone to the main ones to preside over the ceremonies. In New York, the official procession with Fawell at its head made its way first towards Science Square. Washington Square, at the end of Fifth Avenue, had been renamed thus, and it was here that the parade was to take place.

  Almost all over the world other Science Squares had appeared, at famous sites whose famous names had been mercilessly sacrificed: Red Square in Moscow, Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris, and Trafalgar Square in London. They were the starting places for all of the events. On each of them a grandiose monument was to be set up, in memory of the great victories of the human mind. The plans had been drawn up but, as the festival could not be postponed, provisional installations had been put in their place, an archway of greenery, made of intertwined olive branches, at the request of the peace Nobels. The procession stopped at the base of this arch. Flanked by O’Kearn and Sir Alex Keene, who had insisted on keeping close to the President, Fawell placed a simple crown of laurel in front of a column dedicated to the martyrs of science. Betty had suggested this ceremony, which would create an atmosphere of reverence, suitable for preparing the crowd for the emotions which would be skilfully evoked at intervals throughout the day. Then he withdrew while the orchestra struck up the world anthem.