The Seventh Science Fiction MEGAPACK ®. Robert Silverberg

although I can’t say for a fact I actually saw him go. But he was right. Everything’s okay.

      The world is bright, and the cold war is all but over. We may be entering upon the first true peace the human race has ever known.

      Jo Ann is packing, and crying as she packs, because she has to leave so many things behind. But the kids are goggled-eyed about the great adventure just ahead. Tomorrow morning we leave for Peking, where I’ll be the first accredited American correspondent for almost thirty years.

      And I can’t help but wonder if, perhaps, somewhere in that ancient city—perhaps in a crowded, dirty street; perhaps along the imperial highway; maybe some day out in the country beside the Great Wall, built so fearsomely so many years ago—I may not see another little man.