had apparently changed. It was said that the
third Ivan had been a crafty opportunist but also a wise man who,
although he did nothing to abolish absolutism, effected a bloody
reformation in which the hair-splitting Marxist dogmatics had been
purged. He appointed the most pragmatic men he could find to succeed
them, and set the whole continental regime on the road to a harsh but
practical utilitarian civilization.

A slogan had leaked across the Wall recently: "There is no God but a
Practical Man; there is no Law but a Best Solution," and it seemed to
affirm that the third Ivan's influence had continued after his
passing--although the slogan itself was a dogma. And it might mean
something quite non-literal to the people who spoke it. The rabble of
the West were still stirred to deep emotion by a thing that began, "When
in the course of human events--" and they saw nothing incongruous about
Tertiary Stand-ins who quoted it in the name of the Federation's rule.

But the unknown factor that disturbed the President most was not the
present Asian political or economic situation, but rather, the state of
scientific development, particularly as it applied to military matters.
The forty years of non-communication had not been spent in military
stasis, at least not for the West. Sixty percent of the federal budget
was still being spent for defense. Powerful new weapons were still being
developed, and old ones pronounced obsolete. The seventh John Smith had
even conspired to have a conspiracy against himself in Argentina, with
resulting civil war, so that the weapons could be tested under actual
battle conditions--for the region had been overpopulated anyway. The
results had been comforting--but John the Sixteenth wanted to know more
about what the enemy was doing.

* * * * *

The Hell Wall--which was really only a globe-encircling belt of
booby-trapped land and ocean, guarded from both sides--had its political
advantages, of course. The mysterious doings of the enemy, real and
imagined, were a constant and suspenseful threat that made it easy for
the Smiths to keep the rabble in hand. But for all the present Smith
knew, the threat might very well be real. He had to find out. It would
also be a popular triumph he could toss to the rabble, bolstering his
position with them, and thereby securing his hold on the Primary,
Secondary, and Tertiary Stand-ins, who were becoming a little too
presumptuous