1984 - Planet eBook

‘You had better go back to your Pantry, Martin,’ he said.‘I shall switch on in a quarter of an hour. Take a good lookat these comrades’ faces before you go. You will be seeingthem again. I may not.’Exactly as they had done at the front door, the little man’sdark eyes flickered over their faces. There was not a traceof friendliness in his manner. He was memorizing theirappearance, but he felt no interest in them, or appearedto feel none. It occurred to Winston that a synthetic facewas perhaps incapable of changing its expression. Withoutspeaking or giving any kind of salutation, Martin went out,closing the door silently behind him. O’Brien was strollingup and down, one hand in the pocket of his black overalls,the other holding his cigarette.‘You understand,’ he said, ‘that you will be fighting inthe dark. You will always be in the dark. You will receiveorders and you will obey them, without knowing why. LaterI shall send you a book from which you will learn the truenature of the society we live in, and the strategy by whichwe shall destroy it. When you have read the book, you willbe full members of the Brotherhood. But between the generalaims that we are fighting for and the immedi ate tasksof the moment, you will never know anything. I tell youthat the Brotherhood exists, but I cannot tell you whetherit numbers a hundred members, or ten million. Fromyour personal knowledge you will never be able to say thatit numbers even as many as a dozen. You will have threeor four contacts, who will be renewed from time to timeas they disappear. As this was your first contact, it will be