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diff --git a/31343.txt b/31343.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de1c90a --- /dev/null +++ b/31343.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3006 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invaders, by William Fitzgerald Jenkins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Invaders + +Author: William Fitzgerald Jenkins + +Release Date: February 21, 2010 [EBook #31343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INVADERS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + +THE INVADERS + +By MURRAY LEINSTER + + + _It started in Greece on the day after tomorrow. Before the last act + raced to a close, Coburn was buried to his ears in assorted + adventures, including a revolution and an invasion from outer + space!_ + + _We're not given to throwing around the word "epic" lightly, but + here _is_ one! Swashbuckling action, a great many vivid characters, + and a weird mystery--all spun for you by one of the master + story-tellers of our time._ + + +On a certain day--it may be in the history books eventually--Coburn was +in the village of Ardea, north of Salonika in the most rugged part of +Greece. He was making a survey for purposes which later on turned out +not to matter much. The village of Ardea was small, it was very early in +the morning, and he was trying to get his car started when he heard the +yell. + +It was a shrill yell, and it traveled fast. Coburn jerked his head +upright from the hood of the car. A whiskered villager with flapping +trousers came pounding up the single street. His eyes were +panic-stricken and his mouth was wide. He emitted the yell in a long, +sustained note. Other villagers popped into view like ants from a +disturbed ant-hill. Some instantly ran back into their houses. Others +began to run toward the outskirts of the village, toward the south. + +Coburn, watching blankly, found himself astonished at the number of +people the village contained. He hadn't dreamed it was so populous. All +were in instant frenzied flight toward the mountains. An old woman he'd +seen barely hobbling, now ran like a deer. Children toddled desperately. +Adults snatched them up and ran. Larger children fled on twinkling legs. +The inhabitants of Ardea vanished toward the hills in a straggling, +racing, panting stream. They disappeared around an outcrop of stone +which was merely the nearest place that would hide them. Then there was +silence. + +Coburn turned his head blankly in the direction from which they had run. +He saw the mountains--incredibly stony and barren. That was all. No, not +quite--there was something far away which was subtly different in color +from the hillsides. It moved. It flowed over a hill crest, coming +plainly from somewhere beyond the mountains. It was vague in shape. +Coburn felt a momentary stirring of superstition. There simply couldn't +be anything so huge.... + +But there could. There was. It was a column of soldiers in uniforms that +looked dark-gray at this distance. It flowed slowly out of the mountains +like a colossal snake--some Midgard monster or river of destruction. It +moved with an awful, deliberate steadiness toward the village of Ardea. + +Coburn caught his breath. Then he was running too. He was out of the +village almost before he realized it. He did not try to follow the +villagers. He might lead pursuers after them. There was a narrow defile +nearby. Tanks could hardly follow it, and it did not lead where they +would be going. He plunged into it and was instantly hidden. He pelted +on. It was a trail from somewhere, because he saw ancient +donkey-droppings on the stones, but he did not know where it led. He +simply ran to get away from the village and the soldiers who were coming +toward it. + +This was Greece. They were Bulgarian soldiers. This was not war or even +invasion. This was worse--a cold-war raid. He kept running and presently +rocky cliffs overhung him on one side, a vast expanse of sky loomed to +his left. He found himself panting. He began to hope that he was +actually safe. + +Then he heard a voice. It sounded vexed. Quite incredibly, it was +talking English. "But my dear young lady!" it said severely. "You simply +mustn't go on! There's the very devil of a mess turning up, and you +mustn't run into it!" + +A girl's voice answered, also in English. "I'm sure--I don't know what +you're talking about!" + +"I'm afraid I can't explain. But, truly, you mustn't go on to the +village!" + +Coburn pushed ahead. He came upon the people who had spoken. There was a +girl riding on a donkey. She was American. Trim. Neat. Uneasy, but +reasonably self-confident. And there was a man standing by the trail, +with a slide of earth behind him and mud on his boots as if he'd slid +down somewhere very fast to intercept this girl. He wore the distinctive +costume a British correspondent is apt to affect in the wilds. + +They turned as Coburn came into view. The girl goggled at him. He was +not exactly the sort of third person one expected to find on a very +lonely, ill-defined rocky trail many miles north of Salonika. + +When they turned to him, Coburn recognized the man. He'd met Dillon once +or twice in Salonika. He panted: "Dillon! There's a column of soldiers +headed across the border! Bulgarians!" + +"How close?" asked Dillon. + +"They're coming," said Coburn, with some difficulty due to lack of +breath. "I saw them across the valley. Everybody's run away from the +village. I was the last one out." + +Dillon nodded composedly. He looked intently at Coburn. "You know me," +he said reservedly. "Should I remember you?" + +"I've met you once or twice," Coburn told him. "In Salonika." + +"Oh," said Dillon. "Oh, yes. Sorry. I've got some cameras up yonder. I +want a picture or two of those Bulgarians. See if you can persuade this +young lady not to go on. I fancy it's safe enough here. Not a normal +raid route through this pass." + +Coburn nodded. Dillon expected the raid, evidently. This sort of thing +had happened in Turkey. Now it would start up here, in Greece. The +soldiers would strike fast and far, at first. They wouldn't stop to hunt +down the local inhabitants. Not yet. + +"We'll wait," said Coburn. "You'll be back?" + +"Oh, surely!" said Dillon. "Five minutes or less." + +He started up the precipitous wall, at whose bottom he had slid down. He +climbed remarkably well. He went up hand-over-hand despite the steepness +of the stone. It looked almost impossible, but Dillon apparently found +handgrips by instinct, as a good climber does. In a matter of minutes +he vanished, some fifty feet up, behind a bulging mass of stone. He did +not reappear. + + * * * * * + +Coburn began to get his breath back. The girl looked at him, her +forehead creased. + +"Just to make sure," said Coburn, "I'll see if I can get a view back +down the trail." + +Where the vastness of the sky showed, he might be able to look down. He +scrambled up a barrier two man-heights high. There was a screen of +straggly brush, with emptiness beyond. He peered. + +He could see a long way down and behind, and actually the village was +clearly in sight from here. There were rumbling, caterpillar-tread tanks +in the act of entering it. There were anachronistic mounted men with +them. Cavalry is outdated, nowadays, but in rocky mountain country they +can have uses where tanks can't go. But here tanks and cavalry looked +grim. Coburn squirmed back and beckoned to the girl. She joined him. +They peered through the brushwood together. + +The light tanks were scurrying along the single village street. Horsemen +raced here and there. A pig squealed. There was a shot. The tanks +emerged from the other side. They went crawling swiftly toward the +south. But they did not turn aside where the villagers had. They headed +along the way Coburn had driven to Ardea. + +[Illustration] + +Infantrymen appeared, marching into the village. An advance party, +rifles ready. This was strict discipline and standard military practise. +Horsemen rode to tell them that all was quiet. They turned and spurred +away after the tanks. + +The girl said in a strained voice. "This is war starting! Invasion!" + +Coburn said coldly, "No. No planes. This isn't war. It's a training +exercise, Iron-Curtain style. This outfit will strike twenty--maybe +thirty miles south. There's a town there--Kilkis. They'll take it and +loot it. By the time Athens finds out what's happened, they'll be ready +to fall back. They'll do a little fighting. They'll carry off the +people. And they'll deny everything. The West doesn't want war. Greece +couldn't fight by herself. And America wouldn't believe that such things +could happen. But they do. It's what's called cold war. Ever hear of +that?" + +The main column of soldiers far below poured up to the village and went +down the straggly street in a tide of dark figures. The village was very +small. The soldiers came out of the other end of the village. They +poured on after the tanks, rippling over irregularities in the way. +They seemed innumerable. + +"Three or four thousand men," said Coburn coldly. "This is a big raid. +But it's not war. Not yet." + +It was not the time for full-scale war. Bulgaria and the other countries +in its satellite status were under orders to put a strain upon the +outside world. They were building up border incidents and turmoil for +the benefit of their masters. Turkey was on a war footing, after a +number of incidents like this. Indo-China was at war. Korea was an old +story. Now Greece. It always takes more men to guard against criminal +actions than to commit them. When this raid was over Greece would have +to maintain a full-size army in its northern mountains to guard against +its repetition. Which would be a strain on its treasury and might help +toward bankruptcy. This was cold war. + +The infantry ended. Horse-drawn vehicles appeared in a seemingly endless +line. Motorized transport would be better, but the Bulgarians were short +of it. Shaggy, stubby animals plodded in the wake of the tanks and the +infantry. There were two-wheeled carts in single file all across the +valley. They went through the village and filed after the soldiers. + +"I think," said Coburn in biting anger, "this will be all there is to +see. They'll go in until they're stopped. They'll kidnap Greek civilians +and later work them to death in labor camps. They'll carry off some +children to raise as spies. But their purpose is probably only to make +such a threat that the Greeks will go broke guarding against them. They +know the Greeks don't want war." + +He began to wriggle back from the brushwood screen. He was filled with +the sort of sick rage that comes when you can't actively resent +insolence and arrogance. He hated the people who wanted the world to +collapse, and this was part of their effort to bring it about. + +He helped the girl down. "Dillon said to wait," he said. He found +himself shaking with anger at the men who had ordered the troops to +march. "He said he was taking pictures. He must have had an advance tip +of some sort. If so, he'll have a line of retreat." + +Then Coburn frowned. Not quite plausible, come to think of it. But +Dillon had certainly known about the raid. He was set to take pictures, +and he hadn't been surprised. One would have expected Greek Army +photographers on hand to take pictures of a raid of which they had +warning. Probably United Nations observers on the scene, too. Yes. There +should be Army men and probably a United Nations team up where Dillon +was. + +Coburn explained to the girl. "That'll be it. And they'll have a radio, +too. Probably helicopters taking them out also. I'll go up and tell them +to be sure and have room for you." + +He started for the cliff he'd seen Dillon climb. He paused: "I'd better +have your name for them to report to Athens." + +"I'm Janice Ames," she told him. "The Breen Foundation has me going +around arranging for lessons for the people up here. Sanitation and +nutrition and midwifery, and so on. The Foundation office is in +Salonika, though." + +He nodded and attacked the cliff. + + * * * * * + +It hadn't been a difficult climb for Dillon. It wasn't even a long one +for Coburn, but it was much worse than he'd thought. The crevices for +handholds were rare, and footholds were almost non-existent. There were +times when he felt he was holding on by his fingernails. Dillon seemed +to have made it with perfect ease, but Coburn found it exhausting. + +Fifty feet up he came to the place where Dillon had vanished. But it was +a preposterously difficult task to get across an undercut to where he +could grasp a stunted tree. It was a strain to scramble up past it. Then +he found himself on the narrowest of possible ledges, with a sickening +drop off to one side. But Dillon had made it, so he followed. + +He went a hundred yards, and then the ledge came to an end. He saw where +Dillon must have climbed. It was possible, but Coburn violently did not +want to try. Still ... He started. + +Then something clicked in his throat. There was a rather deep ledge for +a space of four or five feet. And there was Dillon. No, not Dillon. Just +Dillon's clothes. They lay flat and deflated, but laid out in one +assembly beside a starveling twisted bush. It would have been possible +for a man to stand there to take off his clothes, if he wanted to. But a +man who takes off his clothes--and why should Dillon do that?--takes +them off one by one. These garments were fitted together. The coat was +over the shirt, and the trousers fitted to the bottom of the shirt over +the coat, and the boots were at the ends of the trouser legs. + +Then Coburn saw something he did not believe. It palpably was not true. +He saw a hand sticking out of the end of the sleeve. But it was not a +hand, because it had collapsed. It was rather like an unusually thick +glove, flesh color. + +Then he saw what should have been Dillon's head. And it was in place, +too. But it was not Dillon's head. It was not a head at all. It was +something quite different. There were no eyes. Merely holes. Openings. +Like a mask. + +Coburn felt a sort of roaring in his ears, and he could not think +clearly for a moment because of the shrieking impossibility of what he +was looking at. Dillon's necktie had been very neatly untied, and left +in place in his collar. His shirt had been precisely unbuttoned. He had +plainly done it himself. And then--the unbuttoned shirt made it +clear--he had come out of his body. Physically, he had emerged and gone +on. The thing lying flat that had lapsed at Coburn's feet was Dillon's +outside. His outside only. The inside had come out and gone away. It had +climbed the cliff over Coburn's head. + +The outside of Dillon looked remarkably like something made out of +foam-rubber. Coburn touched it, insanely. + +He heard his own voice saying flatly: "It's a sort of suit. A suit that +looks like Dillon. He was in it. Something was! Something is playing the +part of Dillon. Maybe it always was. Maybe there isn't any Dillon." + +He felt a sort of hysterical composure. He opened the chest. It was +patently artificial. There were such details on the inside as would be +imagined in a container needed to fit something snugly. At the edges of +the opening there were fastenings like the teeth of a zipper, but +somehow different. Coburn knew that when this was fastened there would +be no visible seam. + +Whatever wore this suit-that-looked-like-Dillon could feel perfectly +confident of passing for Dillon, clothed or otherwise. It could pass +without any question for-- + +Coburn gagged. + +_It could pass without question for a human being._ + +Obviously, whatever was wearing this foam-rubber replica of Dillon was +not human! + +Coburn went back to where he had to climb down the cliffside again. He +moved like a sleep-walker. He descended the fifty-foot cliff by the +crevices and the single protruding rock-point that had helped him get +up. It was much easier going down. In his state of mind it was also more +dangerous. He moved in a sort of robot-like composure. + +He moved toward the girl, trying to make words come out of his throat, +when a small rock came clattering down the cliff. He looked up. Dillon +was in the act of swinging to the first part of the descent. He came +down, very confident and assured. He had two camera-cases slung from his +shoulders. Coburn stared at him, utterly unable to believe what he'd +seen ten minutes before. + +Dillon reached solid ground and turned. He smiled wryly. His shirt was +buttoned. His tie was tied. + +"I hoped," he said ruefully to Janice Ames, "that the Bulgars would +toddle off. But they left a guard in the village. We can't hope to take +an easier trail. We'll have to go back the way you came. We'll get you +safe to Salonika, though." + +The girl smiled, uneasily but gratefully. + +"And," added Dillon, "we'd better get started." + +He gallantly helped the girl remount her donkey. At the sight, Coburn +was shaken out of his numbness. He moved fiercely to intervene. But +Janice settled herself in the saddle and Dillon confidently led the way. +Coburn grimly walked beside her as she rode. He was convinced that he +wouldn't leave her side while Dillon was around. But even as he knew +that desperate certitude, he was filled with confusion and a panicky +uncertainty. + +When they'd traveled about half a mile, another frightening thought +occurred to Coburn. Perhaps Dillon--passing for human--wasn't alone. +Perhaps there were thousands like him. + +Invaders! Usurpers, pretending to be men. Invaders, obviously, from +space! + + +II + +They made eight miles. At least one mile of that, added together, was +climbing straight up. Another mile was straight down. The rest was +boulder-strewn, twisting, donkey-wide, slanting, slippery stone. But +there was no sign of anyone but themselves. The sky remained +undisturbed. No planes. They saw no sign of the raiding force from +across the border, and they heard no gunfire. + +Coburn struggled against the stark impossibility of what he had seen. +The most horrifying concept regarding invasion from space is that of +creatures who are able to destroy or subjugate humanity. A part of that +concept was in Coburn's mind now. Dillon marched on ahead, in every way +convincingly human. But he wasn't. And to Coburn, his presence as a +non-human invader of Earth made the border-crossing by the Bulgarians +seem almost benevolent. + +They went on. The next hill was long and steep. Then they were at the +hill crest. They looked down into a village called Naousa. It was larger +than Ardea, but not much larger. One of the houses burned untended. +Figures moved about. There were tanks in sight, and many soldiers in the +uniform that looked dark-gray at a distance. The route by which Dillon +had traveled had plainly curved into the line-of-march of the Bulgarian +raiding force. + +But the moving figures were not soldiers. The soldiers were still. They +lay down on the grass in irregular, sprawling windrows. The tanks were +not in motion. There were two-wheeled carts in sight--reaching back +along the invasion-route--and they were just as stationary as the men +and the tanks. The horses had toppled in their shafts. They were +motionless. + +The movement was of civilians--men and women alike. They were Greek +villagers, and they moved freely among the unmilitarily recumbent +troops, and even from this distance their occupation was clear. They +were happily picking the soldiers' pockets. But there was one figure +which moved from one prone figure to another much too quickly to be +looting. Coburn saw sunlight glitter on something in his hand. + + * * * * * + +Dillon noticed the same thing Coburn did at the same instant. He bounded +forward. He ran toward the village and its tumbled soldiers in great, +impossible leaps. No man could make such leaps or travel so fast. He +seemed almost to soar toward the village, shouting. Coburn and Janice +saw him reach the village. They saw him rush toward the one man who had +been going swiftly from one prone soldier to another. It was too far to +see Dillon's action, but the sunlight glittered again on something +bright, which this time flew through the air and dropped to the ground. + +The villagers grouped about Dillon. There was no sign of a struggle. + +"What's happened?" demanded Janice uneasily. "Those are soldiers on the +ground." + +Coburn's fright prevented his caution. He shouted furiously. "He's not a +man! You saw it! No man can run so fast! You saw those jumps! He's not +human! He's--something else!" + +Janice jerked her eyes to Coburn in panic. "What did you say?" + +Coburn panted: "Dillon's no man! He's a monster from somewhere in space! +And he and his kind have killed those soldiers! Murdered them! And the +soldiers are men! You stay here. I'll go down there and--" + +"No!" said Janice, "I'm coming too." + +He took the donkey's halter and led the animal down to the village, with +Janice trembling a little in the saddle. He talked in a tight, taut, +hysterical tone. He told what he'd found up on the cliffside. He +described in detail the similitude of a man's body he'd found deflated +beside a stunted bush. + +He did not look at Janice as he talked. He moved doggedly toward the +village, dragging at the donkey's head. They neared the houses very +slowly, and Coburn considered that he walked into the probability of a +group of other creatures from unthinkable other star systems, disguised +as men. It did not occur to him that his sudden outburst about Dillon +sounded desperately insane to Janice. + + * * * * * + +They reached the first of the fallen soldiers. Janice looked, +shuddering. Then she said thinly: "He's breathing!" + +He was. He was merely a boy. Twenty or thereabouts. He lay on his back, +his eyes closed. His face was upturned like a dead man's. But his breast +rose and fell rhythmically. He slept as if he were drugged. + +But that was more incredible than if he'd been dead. Regiments of men +fallen simultaneously asleep.... + +Coburn's flow of raging speech stopped short. He stared. He saw other +fallen soldiers. Dozens of them. In coma-like slumber, the soldiers who +had come to loot and murder lay like straws upon the ground. If they had +been dead it would have been more believable. At least there are ways to +kill men. But this ... + +Dillon parted the group of villagers about him and came toward Coburn +and Janice. He was frowning in a remarkably human fashion. + +"Here's a mess!" he said irritably. "Those Bulgars came marching down +out of the pass. The cavalry galloped on ahead and cut the villagers off +so they couldn't run away. They started to loot the village. They +weren't pleasant. Women began to scream, and there were shootings--all +in a matter of minutes. And then the looters began to act strangely. +They staggered around and sat down and went to sleep!" + +He waved his hands in a helpless gesture, but Coburn was not deceived. + +"The tanks arrived. And they stopped--and their crews went to sleep! +Then the infantry appeared, staggering as it marched. The officers +halted to see what was happening ahead, and the entire infantry dropped +off to sleep right where it stood! + +"It's bad! If it had happened a mile or so back ... The Greeks must have +played a trick on them, but those cavalrymen raised the devil in the few +minutes they were out of hand! They killed some villagers and then +keeled over. And now the villagers aren't pleased. There was one man +whose son was murdered, and he's been slitting the Bulgars' throats!" + +He looked at Coburn, and Coburn said in a grating voice: "I see." + +Dillon said distressedly: "One can't let them slit the throats of +sleeping men! I'll have to stay here to keep them from going at it +again. I say, Coburn, will you take one of their staff cars and run on +down somewhere and tell the Greek government what's happened here? +Something should be done about it! Soldiers should come to keep order +and take charge of these chaps." + +"Yes," said Coburn. "I'll do it. I'll take Janice along, too." + +"Splendid!" Dillon nodded as if in relief. "She'd better get out of the +mess entirely. I fancy there'd have been a full-scale massacre if we +hadn't come along. The Greeks have no reason to love these chaps, and +their intentions were hardly amiable. But one can't let them be +murdered!" + +Coburn had his hand on his revolver in his pocket. His finger was on the +trigger. But if Dillon needed him to run an errand, then there obviously +were no others of his own kind about. + +Dillon turned his back. He gave orders in the barbarous dialect of the +mountains. His voice was authoritative. Men obeyed him and dragged +uniformed figures out of a light half-track that was plainly a staff +car. Dillon beckoned, and Coburn moved toward him. The important thing +as far as Coburn was concerned was to get Janice to safety. Then to +report the full event. + + * * * * * + +"I ... I'm not sure ..." began Janice, her voice shaking. + +"I'll prove what I said," raged Coburn in a low tone. "I'm not crazy, +though I feel like it!" + +Dillon beckoned again. Janice slipped off the donkey's back. She looked +pitifully frightened and irresolute. + +"I've located the chap who's the mayor of this village, or something +like that. Take him along. They might not believe you, but they'll have +to investigate when he turns up." + +A white-bearded villager reluctantly climbed into the back of the car. +Dillon pleasantly offered to assist Janice into the front seat. She +climbed in, deathly white, frightened of Coburn and almost ashamed to +admit that his vehement outburst had made her afraid of Dillon, too. + +Dillon came around to Coburn's side of the vehicle. "Privately," he said +with a confidential air, "I'd advise you to dump this mayor person where +he can reach authority, and then go away quietly and say nothing of what +happened up here. If the Greeks are using some contrivance that handles +an affair like this, it will be top secret. They won't like civilians +knowing about it." + +Coburn's grip on his revolver was savage. It seemed likely, now, that +Dillon was the only one of his extraordinary kind about. + +"I think I know why you say that," he said harshly. + +Dillon smiled. "Oh, come now!" he protested. "I'm quite unofficial!" + +He was incredibly convincing at that moment. There was a wry half-smile +on his face. He looked absolutely human; absolutely like the British +correspondent Coburn had met in Salonika. He was too convincing. Coburn +knew he would suspect his own sanity unless he made sure. + +"You're not only unofficial," said Coburn grimly. His hand came up over +the edge of the staff-car door. It had his revolver in it. It bore +inexorably upon the very middle of Dillon's body. "You're not human, +either! You're not a man! Your name isn't Dillon! You're--something I +haven't a word for! But if you try anything fancy I'll see if a bullet +through your middle will stop you!" + +Dillon did not move. He said easily: "You're being absurd, my dear +fellow. Put away that pistol." + +"You slipped!" said Coburn thickly. "You said the Greeks played a trick +on this raiding party. But you played it. At Ardea, when you climbed +that cliff--no man could climb so fast. No man could run as you ran down +into this village. And I saw that body you're wearing when you weren't +in it! I followed you up the cliff when--" Coburn's voice was ragingly +sarcastic--"when you were taking pictures!" + + * * * * * + +Dillon's face went impassive. Then he said: "Well?" + +"Will you let me scratch your finger?" demanded Coburn almost +hysterically. "If it bleeds, I'll apologize and freely admit I'm crazy! +But if it doesn't ..." + +The thing-that-was-not-Dillon raised its eyebrows. "It wouldn't," it +said coolly. "You do know. What follows?" + +"You're something from space," accused Coburn, "sneaking around Earth +trying to find out how to conquer us! You're an Invader! You're trying +out weapons. And you want me to keep my mouth shut so we Earth people +won't patch up our own quarrels and join forces to hunt you down! But +we'll do it! We'll do it!" + +The thing-that-was-not-Dillon said gently: "No. My dear chap, no one +will believe you." + +"We'll see about that!" snapped Coburn. "Put those cameras in the car!" + +The figure that looked so human hesitated a long instant, then obeyed. +It lowered the two seeming cameras into the back part of the staff car. + +Janice started to say, "I ... I ..." + +The pseudo-Dillon smiled at her. "You think he's insane, and naturally +you're scared," it said reassuringly. "But he's sane. He's quite right. +I am from outer space. And I'm not humoring him either. Look!" + +He took a knife from his pocket and snapped it open. He deliberately ran +the point down the side of one of his fingers. + +The skin parted. Something that looked exactly like foam-rubber was +revealed. There were even bubbles in it. + +The pseudo-Dillon said, "You see, you don't have to be afraid of him. +He's sane, and quite human. You'll feel much better traveling with him." +Then the figure turned to Coburn. "You won't believe it, but I really +like you, Coburn. I like the way you've reacted. It's very ... human." + +Coburn said to him: "It'll be human, too, when we start to hunt you +down!" He let the staff car in gear. Dillon smiled at him. He let in the +clutch, and the car leaped ahead. + + * * * * * + +In the two camera-cases Coburn was sure that he had the cryptic device +that was responsible for the failure of a cold-war raid. He wouldn't +have dared drive away from Dillon leaving these devices behind. If they +were what he thought, they'd be absolute proof of the truth of his +story, and they should furnish clues to the sort of science the Invaders +possessed. Show the world that Invaders were upon it, and all the world +would combine to defend Earth. The cold war would end. + +But a bitter doubt came to him. Would they? Or would they offer +zestfully to be viceroys and overseers for the Invaders, betraying the +rest of mankind for the privilege of ruling them even under unhuman +masters? + +Janice swayed against his shoulder. He cast a swift glance at her. Her +face was like marble. + +"What's the matter?" + +She shook her head. "I'm trying not to faint," she said unsteadily. +"When you told me he was from another world I ... thought you were +crazy. But when he admitted it ... when he proved it ..." + +Coburn growled. The trail twisted and dived down a steep slope. It +twisted again and ran across a rushing, frothing stream. Coburn drove +into the rivulet. Water reared up in wing-like sheets on either side. +The staff car climbed out, rocking, on the farther side. Coburn put it +to the ascent beyond. The trail turned and climbed and descended as the +stony masses of the hills required. + +"He's--from another world!" repeated Janice. Her teeth chattered. "What +do they want--creatures like him? How--how many of them are there? +Anybody could be one of them! What do they want?" + +"This is a pretty good world," said Coburn fiercely. "And his kind will +want it. We're merely the natives, the aborigines, to them. Maybe they +plan to wipe us out, or enslave us. But they won't! We can spot them +now! They don't bleed. Scratch one and you find--foam-rubber. X-rays +will spot them. We'll learn to pick them out--and when some specialists +look over those things that look like cameras we'll know more still! +Enough to do something!" + +"Then you think it's an invasion from space?" + +"What else?" snapped Coburn. + +His stomach was a tight cramped knot now. He drove the car hard! + + * * * * * + +In air miles the distance to be covered was relatively short. In road +miles it seemed interminable. The road was bad and curving beyond +belief. It went many miles east and many miles west for every mile of +southward gain. The hour grew late. Coburn had fled Ardea at sunrise, +but they'd reached Naousa after midday and he drove frantically over +incredible mountain roads until dusk. Despite sheer recklessness, +however, he could not average thirty miles an hour. There were times +when even the half-track had to crawl or it would overturn. The sun set, +and he went on up steep grades and down steeper ones in the twilight. +Night fell and the headlights glared ahead, and the staff car clanked +and clanked and grumbled and roared on through the darkness. + +They probably passed through villages--the headlights showed stone +hovels once or twice--but no lights appeared. It was midnight before +they saw a moving yellow spot of brightness with a glare as of fire upon +steam above it. There were other small lights in a row behind it, and +they saw that all the lights moved. + +"A railroad!" said Coburn. "We're getting somewhere!" + +It was a railroad train on the other side of a valley, but they did not +reach the track. The highway curved away from it. + +At two o'clock in the morning they saw electric lights. The highway +became suddenly passable. Presently they ran into the still, silent +streets of a slumbering town--Serrai--an administrative center for this +part of Greece. They threaded its ways while Coburn watched for a proper +place to stop. Once a curiously-hatted policeman stared blankly at them +under an arc lamp as the staff car clanked and rumbled past him. They +saw a great pile of stone which was a church. They saw a railroad +station. + +Not far away there was a building in which there were lights. A man in +uniform came out of its door. + +Coburn stopped a block away. There were uneasy stirrings, and the +white-bearded passenger from the village said incomprehensible things in +a feeble voice. Coburn got Janice out of the car first. She was stiff +and dizzy when she tried to walk. The Greek was in worse condition +still. He clung to the side of the staff car. + +"We tell the truth," said Coburn curtly, "when we talk to the police. We +tell the whole truth--except about Dillon. That sounds too crazy. We +tell it to top-level officials only, after they realize that something +they don't know anything about has really taken place. Talk of Invaders +from space would either get us locked up as lunatics or would create a +panic. This man will tell what happened up there, and they'll +investigate. But we take these so-called cameras to Salonika, and get to +an American battleship." + +He lifted Dillon's two cameras by the carrying-straps. And the straps +pulled free. They'd held the cases safely enough during a long journey +on foot across the mountains. But they pulled clear now. + +Coburn had a bitter thought. He struck a match. He saw the leather cases +on the floor of the staff car. He picked up one of them. He took it to +the light of the headlights, standing there in the resonant darkness of +a street in a city of stone houses. + + * * * * * + +The leather was brittle. It was friable, as if it had been in a fire. +Coburn plucked it open, and it came apart in his hands. Inside there was +the smell of scorched things. There was a gritty metallic powder. +Nothing else. The other carrying-case was in exactly the same condition. + +Coburn muttered bitterly: "They were set to destroy themselves if they +got into other hands than Dillon's. We haven't a bit of proof that he +wasn't a human being. Not a shred of proof!" + +He suddenly felt a sick rage, as if he had been played with and mocked. +The raid from Bulgaria was serious enough, of course. It would have +killed hundreds of people and possibly hundreds of others would have +been enslaved. But even that was secondary in Coburn's mind. The +important thing was that there were Invaders upon Earth. Non-human +monsters, who passed for humans through disguise. They had been able to +travel through space to land secretly upon Earth. They moved unknown +among men, learning the secrets of mankind, preparing for--what? + + +III + +They got into Salonika early afternoon of the next day, after many hours +upon an antique railroad train that puffed and grunted and groaned among +interminable mountains. Coburn got a taxi to take Janice to the office +of the Breen Foundation which had sent her up to the north of Greece to +establish its philanthropic instruction courses. He hadn't much to say +to Janice as they rode. He was too disheartened. + +In the cab, though, he saw great placards on which newspaper headlines +appeared in Greek. He could make out the gist of them. Essentially, they +shrieked that Bulgarians had invaded Greece and had been wiped out. He +made out the phrase for valiant Greek army. And the Greek army was +valiant enough, but it hadn't had anything to do with this. + +From the police station in Serrai--he had been interviewed there until +dawn--he knew what action had been taken. Army planes had flown +northward in the darkness, moved by the Mayor's, and Coburn's, and +Janice's tale of Bulgarian soldiers on Greek soil, sleeping soundly. +They had released parachute flares and located the village of Naousa. +Parachutists with field radios had jumped, while other flares burned to +light them to the ground. That was that. Judging by the placards, their +reports had borne out the story Coburn had brought down. There would be +a motorized Greek division on the way to take charge of the +four-thousand-odd unconscious raiders. There was probably an advance +guard there now. + +But there was no official news. Even the Greek newspapers called it +rumors. Actually, it was leaked information. It would be reasonable for +the Greek government to let it leak, look smug, and blandly say "No +comment" to all inquiries, including those from Bulgaria. + +But behind that appearance of complacency, the Greek government would be +going quietly mad trying to understand what so fortunately had happened. +And Coburn could tell them. But he knew better than to try without some +sort of proof. Yet, he had to tell. The facts were more important than +what people thought of him. + +The cab stopped before his own office. He paid the driver. The driver +beamed and said happily: "_Tys nikisame, e?_" + +Coburn said, "_Poly kala. Orea._" + + * * * * * + +His office was empty. It was dustier than usual. His secretary was +probably taking a holiday since he was supposed to be out of town. He +grunted and sat down at the telephone. He called a man he knew. +Hallen--another American--was attached to a non-profit corporation which +was attached to an agency which was supposed to cooeperate with a +committee which had something to do with NATO. Hallen answered the phone +in person. + +Coburn identified himself. "Have you heard any rumors about a Bulgarian +raid up-country?" he asked. + +"I haven't heard anything else since I got up," Hallen told him. + +"I was there," said Coburn. "I brought the news down. Can you come +over?" + +"I'm halfway there now!" said Hallen as he slammed down the phone. + +Coburn paced up and down his office. It was very dusty. Even the seat of +the chair at his secretary's desk was dusty. The odds were that she was +coming in only to sort the mail, and not even sitting down for that. He +shrugged. + +He heard footsteps. The door opened. His secretary, Helena, came in. She +looked surprised. + +"I was at lunch," she explained. She had a very slight accent. She hung +up her coat. "I am sorry. I stopped at a store." + +He had paused in his pacing to nod at her. Now he stared, but her back +was turned toward him. He blinked. She had just told a very transparent +lie. And Helena was normally very truthful. + +"You had a good trip?" she asked politely. + +"Fair," said Coburn. "Any phone calls this morning?" he asked. + +"Not this morning," she said politely. + +She reached in a desk drawer. She brought out paper. She put it in the +typewriter and began to type. + +Coburn felt very queer. Then he saw something else. There was a fly in +the office--a large, green-bodied fly of metallic lustre. The +inhabitants of Salonika said with morbid pride that it was a specialty +of the town, with the most painful of all known fly stings. And Helena +abhorred flies. + +It landed on the bare skin of her neck. She did not notice. It stayed +there. Ordinarily she would have jumped up, exclaiming angrily in Greek, +and then she would have pursued the fly vengefully with a folded +newspaper until she killed it. But now she ignored it. + +Hallen came in, stamping. Coburn closed the door behind him. He felt +queer at the pit of his stomach. For Helena to let a fly stay on her +neck suggested that her skin was ... somehow not like its usual self. + +"What happened to those Bulgarians?" demanded Hallen. + +Coburn told him precisely what he'd seen when he arrived in Naousa after +an eight-mile hike through mountains. Then he went back and told Hallen +precisely what he'd seen up on the cliffside. + +"His cameras were some sort of weapon. He played it on the marching +column, it took effect and they went to sleep," he finished. "I took +them away from him and brought them down, but--" + +He told about the contents of the camera cases being turned to a gritty, +sooty powder. Then he added: "Dillon set them to destroy themselves. You +understand. He's not a man. He's a creature from some planet other than +Earth, passing for a human being. He's an Invader from space." + +Hallen's expression was uneasy and compassionate but utterly +unbelieving. Helena shivered and turned away her face. Coburn's lips +went taut. He reached down to his desk. He made a sudden, abrupt +gesture. Hallen caught his breath and started up. + + * * * * * + +Coburn said curtly: "Another one of them. Helena, is that foam-suit +comfortable?" + +The girl jerked her face around. She looked frightened. + +"Helena," said Coburn, "the real Helena, that is, would not sit down on +a dusty chair. No woman would. But you did. She is a very truthful girl. +You lied to me. And I just stuck pins in your shoulder and you didn't +notice. They're sticking in your foam suit now. You and the creature +that passed for Dillon up-country are both aliens. Invaders. Do you want +to try to convince me otherwise?" + +The girl said evenly: "Mr. Coburn, I do not think you are well--" + +Then Coburn said thickly: "I'm crazy enough to put a bullet through you +if your gang of devils has harmed the real Helena. What's happened to +her?" + +Hallen moved irresolutely to interfere. But the girl's expression +changed. She smiled. "The real Helena, Mr. Coburn," said an entirely new +voice, "has gone to the suburbs to visit her fiance's family. She is +quite safe." + +There was dead silence. The figure--it even moved like Helena--got +composedly to its feet. It got its coat. It put the coat on. Hallen +stared with his mouth open. The pins hadn't convinced him, but the +utterly different voice coming from this girl's mouth had. Yet, waves of +conflicting disbelief and conviction, horror and a racking doubt, chased +themselves over his features. + +"She admits she's not Helena!" said Coburn with loathing. "It's not +human! Should I shoot it?" + +The girl smiled at him again. Her eyes were very bright. "You will not, +Mr. Coburn. And you will not even try to keep me prisoner to prove your +story. If I screamed that you attack me--" the smile widened--"Helena's +good Greek friends would come to my assistance." + +She walked confidently to the door and opened it. Then she said warmly: +"You are very intelligent, Mr. Coburn. We approve of you very much. But +nobody will believe you." + +The office door closed. + +Coburn turned stiffly to the man he'd called to hear him. "Should I have +shot her, Hallen?" + +Hallen sat down as if his knees had given way beneath him. After a long +time he got out a handkerchief and painfully mopped his face. At the +same time he shivered. + +"N-no...." Then he swallowed. "My God, Coburn! It's true!" + +"Yes," said Coburn bitterly, "or you're as crazy as I am." + +Hallen's eyes looked haunted. "I--I ..." He swallowed again. "There's no +question about the Bulgarian business. That did happen! And you were +there. And--there've been other things.... Rumors.... Reports that +nobody believed.... I might be able to get somebody to listen...." He +shivered again. "If it's true, it's the most terrible thing that ever +happened. Invaders from space.... Where do you think they came from, +Coburn?" + +"The creature that looked like Dillon could climb incredibly fast. I saw +it run and leap. Nothing on Earth could run or leap like that." Coburn +shrugged. "Maybe a planet of another sun, with a monstrous gravity." + +"Try to get somebody to believe that, eh?" Hallen got painfully to his +feet. "I'll see what I can do. I ... don't know that I can do anything +but get myself locked up for observation. But I'll call you in an hour." + +He went unsteadily out of the door. Coburn instantly called the Breen +Foundation on the telephone. He'd left Janice there less than an hour +before. She came to the phone and gasped when she heard his voice. +Raging, he told her of Helena, then cautioned her to be especially +careful--to be suspicious of everybody. + +"Don't take anybody's word!" snapped Coburn. "Doubt everybody! Doubt me! +Until you're absolutely certain. Those creatures are everywhere.... They +may pretend to be anybody!" + +After Coburn hung up on Janice, he sat back and tried to think +logically. There had to be some way by which an extra-terrestrial +Invader could be told instantly from a human being. Unmask and prove +even one such creature, and the whole story would be proved. But how +detect them? Their skin was perfectly deceptive. Scratched, of course, +they could be caught. But one couldn't go around scratching people. +There was nothing of the alien creature's own actual form that showed. + +Then Coburn remembered the Dillon foam suit. The head had been hollow. +Flaccid. Holes instead of eyes. The creature's own eyes showed through. + +But he'd have to make certain. He'd have to look at a foam-suited +creature. He could have examined Helena's eyes, but she was gone now. +However, there was an alternative. There was a Dillon in Salonika, as +there was a Helena. If the Dillon in Salonika was the real Dillon--if +there were a real Dillon--he could look at his eyes. He could tell if he +were the false Dillon or the real one. + + * * * * * + +At this hour of the afternoon a Britisher would consider tea a +necessity. There was only one place in Salonika where they served tea +that an Englishman would consider drinkable. Coburn got into a cab and +gave the driver the address, and made sure of the revolver in his +pocket. He was frightened. He was either going to meet with a monster +from outer space, or be on the way to making so colossal a fool of +himself that a mental asylum would yawn for him. + +He went into the one coffee-shop in Salonika which served drinkable tea. +It was dark and dingy inside, though the tablecloths were spotless. He +went in, and there was Dillon. + +Coburn's flesh crawled. If the figure sitting there with the _London +Times_ and a cup of tea before him were actually a monster from another +planet ... + +But Dillon read comfortably, and sipped his tea. Coburn approached, and +the Englishman looked up inquiringly. + +"I was ... up in the mountains," said Coburn feverishly, "when those +Bulgarians came over. I can give you the story." + +Dillon said frostily: "I'm not interested. The government's officially +denied that any such incident took place. It's merely a silly rumor." + +It was reasonable that it should be denied. But it had happened, +nonetheless. Coburn stared, despite a consciousness that he was not +conspicuously rational in the way his eyes searched Dillon's face +hungrily. The eyes _were_ different! The eyes of the Dillon up in the +mountains had been larger, and the brown part--But he had to be sure. + +Suddenly, Coburn found himself grinning. There was a simple, a perfect, +an absolute test for humanity! + +Dillon said suspiciously: "What the devil are you staring at me for?" + +Coburn continued to grin uncontrollably, even as he said in a tone of +apology: "I hate to do this, but I have to be sure...." + +He swung. He connected with Dillon's nose. Blood started. + +Coburn zestfully let himself be thrown out, while Dillon roared and +tried to get at him through the flying wedge of waiters. He felt an +enormous relaxation on the way back to his office in another cab. He was +a trifle battered, but it was worth it. + + * * * * * + +Back in the office he called Hallen again. And again Hallen answered. He +sounded guilty and worried. + +"I don't know whether I'm crazy or not," he said bitterly. "But I was in +your office. I saw your secretary there--and she didn't feel pins stuck +in her. And something did happen to those Bulgarians that the Greeks +don't know anything about, or the Americans either. So you're to tell +your story to the high brass down in Athens. I think you'll be locked up +afterward as a lunatic--and me with you for believing my own eyes. But a +plane's being readied." + +"Where do I meet you?" asked Coburn. + +Hallen told him. A certain room out at the airport. Coburn hung up. The +telephone rang instantly. He was on the way out, but he turned back and +answered it. Janice's voice--amazingly convincing--came from the +instrument. And at the first words his throat went dry. Because it +couldn't be Janice. + +"I've been trying to get you. Have you tried to reach me?" + +"Why, no. Why?" + +Janice's voice said: "I've something interesting to tell you. I left the +office an hour ago. I'm at the place where I live when I'm in Salonika. +Write down the address. Can you come here? I've found out something +astonishing!" + +He wrote down the address. He had a feeling of nightmarishness. This was +not Janice-- + +"I'm clearing up some matters you'll guess at," he said grimly, "so I +may be a little while getting there. You'll wait?" + +He hung up. And then with a rather ghastly humor he took some pins from +a box on the desk and worked absorbedly at bending one around the inside +of the band of the seal ring he wore on his right hand. + + * * * * * + +But he didn't go to the telephoned address. He went to the Breen +Foundation. And Janice was there. She was the real Janice. He knew it +instantly he saw her. She was panic-stricken when he told her of his own +telephone experience. Her teeth chattered. But she knew--instinctively, +she said--that he was himself. She got into the cab with him. + +They reached the airport and found the office Hallen had named. The +lettering on it, in Greek and French, said that it was a reception room +for official visitors only. + +"Our status is uncertain," said Coburn drily. "We may be official +guests, or we may be crazy. It's a toss-up which status sticks." + +He opened the door and looked carefully inside before he entered. Hallen +was there. There was a lean, hard-bitten colonel of the American liaison +force in Greece. There was a Greek general, pudgy and genial, standing +with his back to a window and his hands clasped behind him. There were +two Greek colonels and a major. They regarded him soberly. + +"Howdo, Coburn," said Hallen painfully. "You're heading for Athens, you +know. This is Miss Ames? But these gentlemen have ... ah ... a special +concern with that business up-country. They'd like to hear your story +before you leave." + +"I suppose," said Coburn curtly, "it's a sort of preliminary commission +in lunacy." + +But he shook hands all around. He kept his left hand in his coat pocket +as he shook hands with his right. His revolver was in his left-hand +pocket now too. The Greek general beamed at him. The American colonel's +eyes were hard and suspicious. One of the two Greek colonels was very +slightly cross-eyed. The Greek major shook hands solemnly. + +Coburn took a deep breath. "I know my tale sounds crazy," he said, "but +... I had a telephone call just now. Hallen will bear me out that my +secretary was impersonated by somebody else this afternoon." + +"I've told them that," said Hallen unhappily. + +"And something was impersonating Dillon up in the hills," finished +Coburn. "I've reason to believe that at this address"--and he handed the +address he'd written down to Hallen--"a ... creature will be found who +will look most convincingly like Miss Ames, here. You might send and +see." + +The American colonel snorted: "This whole tale's preposterous! It's an +attempt to cash in on the actual mystery of what happened up-country." + +The Greek general protested gently. His English was so heavily accented +as to be hard to understand, but he pointed out that Coburn knew details +of the event in Naousa that only someone who had been there could know. + +"True enough," said the American officer darkly, "but he can tell the +truth now, before we make fools of ourselves sending him to Athens to be +unmasked. Suppose," he said unpleasantly, "you give us the actual +facts!" + +Coburn nodded. "The idea you find you can't take is that creatures that +aren't human can be on Earth and pass for human beings. There's some +evidence on that right here." He nodded to the Greek major who was the +junior officer in the room. "Major, will you show these other gentlemen +the palm of your hand?" + +The Greek major frowned perplexedly. He lifted his hand and looked at +it. Then his face went absolutely impassive. + +"I'm ready to shoot!" snapped Coburn. "Show them your hand. I can tell +now." + +He felt the tensing of the others in the room, not toward the major but +toward him. They were preparing to jump him, thinking him mad. + +But the major grinned ruefully: "Clever, Mr. Coburn! But how did you +pick me out?" + +Then there was a sensation of intolerable brightness all around. But it +was not actual light. It was a sensation inside one's brain. + +Coburn felt himself falling. He knew, somehow, that the others were +falling too. He saw everyone in the room in the act of slumping limply +to the floor--all but the Greek major. And Coburn felt a bitter, +despairing fury as consciousness left him. + + +IV + +He came to in a hospital room, with a nurse and two doctors and an +elaborate oxygen-administering apparatus. The apparatus was wheeled out. +The nurse followed. The two doctors hurried after her. The American +colonel of the airport was standing by the bed on which Coburn lay, +fully dressed. + +Coburn felt perfectly all right. He stirred. The American colonel said +sourly: "You're not harmed. Nobody was. But Major Pangalos got away." + +Coburn sat up. There was a moment's bare trace of dizziness, and that +was gone too. Coburn said: "Where's Miss Ames? What happened to her?" + +"She's getting oxygen," said the colonel. "We were rushed here from the +airport, sleeping soundly just like those Bulgarians. Major Pangalos +ordered it before he disappeared. Helicopters brought some Bulgarians +down, by the way, and oxygen brought them to. So naturally they gave us +the same treatment. Very effective." + +The colonel looked both chastened and truculent. "How'd you know Major +Pangalos for what he was? He was accepted everywhere as a man." + +"His eyes were queer," said Coburn. He stood up experimentally. "I +figured they would be, if one looked. I saw the foam suit that creature +wore up-country, when he wasn't in it. There were holes for the eyes. It +occurred to me that his eyes weren't likely to be like ours. Not +exactly. So I hunted up the real Dillon, and his eyes weren't like I +remembered. I punched him in the nose, by the way, to make sure he'd +bleed and was human. He was." + +Coburn continued, "You see, they obviously come from a heavy planet and +move differently. They're stronger than we are. Much like the way we'd +be on the moon with one-sixth Earth gravity. They probably are used to a +thicker atmosphere. If so, their eyes wouldn't be right for here. They'd +need eyeglasses." + +"Major Pangalos didn't--" + +"Contact eyeglasses," said Coburn sourly. "Little cups of plastic. They +slip under the eyelids and touch the white part of the eye. Familiar +enough. But that's not all." + +The American colonel looked troubled. "I know contact lenses," he +admitted. "But--" + +"If the Invaders have a thick atmosphere at home," Coburn said, "they +may have a cloudy sky. The pupils of their eyes may need to be larger. +Perhaps they're a different shape. Or their eyes may be a completely +alien color. Anyhow, they need contact lenses not only to correct their +vision, but to make their eyes look like ours. They're painted on the +inside to change the natural look and color. It's very deceptive. But +you can tell." + +"That goes to Headquarters at once!" snapped the colonel. + +He went out briskly. Coburn followed him out of the room to look for +Janice. And Janice happened to be looking for him at exactly the same +moment. He was genuinely astonished to realize how relieved he was that +she was all right. + +He said apologetically: "I was worried! When I felt myself passing out I +felt pretty rotten at having failed to protect you." + +She looked at him with nearly the same sort of surprised satisfaction. +"I'm all right," she said breathlessly. "I was worried about you." + +The roaring of motors outside the hospital interrupted them. More and +more vehicles arrived, until a deep purring filled the air. A Greek +doctor with a worried expression hurried somewhere. Soldiers appeared, +hard-bitten, tough, professional Greek soldiers. Hallen came out of a +hospital room. The Greek general appeared with one of the two colonels +who'd been at the airport. The general nodded, and his eyes seemed +cordial. He waved them ahead of him into a waiting elevator. The +elevator descended. They went out of the hospital and there was an +armored car waiting. An impressive escort of motorcycle troops waited +with it. + + * * * * * + +The Greek general saw Coburn's cynical expression at sight of the +guards. He explained blandly that since oxygen brought sleeping +Bulgarians out of their slumber--and had been used on them--oxygen was +handy for use by anybody who experienced a bright flash of light in his +mind. The Bulgarian soldiers, incidentally, said that outside the +village of Ardea they'd felt as if the sunlight had brightened +amazingly, but they felt no effects for two hours afterward, when they +fell asleep at Naousa. So, said the general almost unintelligibly, if +anything untoward happened on the way to the airport, everybody would +start breathing oxygen. A sensation of bright light would be untoward. + +The armored car started off, with motorcyclists crowded about it with +weapons ready. But the ride to the airport was uneventful. To others +than Janice and Coburn it may even have been tedious. But when she +understood the general's explanation, she shivered a little. She leaned +insensibly closer to Coburn. He took her hand protectively in his. + +They reached the airport. They roared through the gateway and directly +out upon the darkened field. Something bellowed and raced down a runway +and took to the air. Other things followed it. They gained altitude and +circled back overhead. Tiny bluish flickerings moved across the overcast +sky. Exhaust flames. + +Coburn realized that it was a fighter plane escort. + +The huge transport plane that waited for them was dark. They climbed +into it and found their seats. When it roared down the unlighted field +and took to the air, everything possible had been done to keep anybody +from bringing any weapon to bear upon it. + +"All safe now!" said the voice of the American colonel in the darkness +of the unlit plane, as the plane gained height. "Incidentally, Coburn, +why did you want to look at Pangalos' palm? What did you expect to find +there?" + +"When I started for the airport," Coburn explained, "I bent a pin around +the band of a ring I wear. I could let it lie flat when I shook hands. +Or I could make it stand out like a spur. I set it with my thumb. I saw +Pangalos' eyes, so I had it stand out, and I made a tear in his plastic +skin when I shook hands with him. He didn't feel it, of course." He +paused. "Did anybody go to the address I gave Hallen?" + +Hallen said, in the darkness: "Major Pangalos got there first." + +The blackness outside the plane seemed to grow deeper. There was +literally nothing to be seen but the instrument dials up at the pilots' +end of the ship. + +The Greek general asked a question in his difficult English. + +"Where'd they come from?" repeated Coburn. "I've no idea. Off Earth, +yes. A heavy planet, yes. I doubt they come from our solar system, +though. Somewhere among the stars." + +The Greek general said something with a sly up-twist of his voice. +Whatever and whoever the Invaders were, he said, they did not like +Bulgarians. If they'd knocked out the raiding party simply to test their +weapons against human subjects, at least they had chosen suitable and +pleasing subjects for the test. + + * * * * * + +There was light. For an instant Coburn tensed. But the plane climbed and +the brightness steadied. It was the top of a cloud bank, brilliantly +white in the moonlight. They had flown up through it, and it reached as +far ahead as they could see. A stubby fighter plane swam up out of the +mist and fell into position alongside. Others appeared. They took +formation about the transport and all flew steadily through the +moonlight. + +"I wish I knew," said the American colonel vexedly, "if those creatures +were only testing weapons, or if they were getting set to start +bargaining with us!" + +"Meaning?" asked Coburn. + +"If they're here," said the colonel angrily, "and if they do mean to +meddle in our business, they may set up a sort of auction with us +bidding against the Iron Curtain gang for their friendship. And _they'd_ +make any deal!" + +The Greek general agreed drily. He said that free people were not +practical people. They were always ready to die rather than cease to be +free. Surely the Greeks had proved themselves ready to die. But people +like the Bulgarians thought that to continue to live was the most +important thing in the world. It was, of course, the practical +view-point.... + +"They can have it!" growled Coburn. + +Janice said hesitantly: "But the Invaders haven't killed anybody we know +of. They could have killed the Bulgarians. They didn't. The one who +called himself Dillon stopped one man from killing them. And they could +have killed us, earlier today at the airport. Could they want to be +friends?" + +"They're starting the wrong way," said Coburn. + +The Greek general stirred in his seat, but he was pointedly silent. + +The pilot snapped abruptly from up at the bow of the plane: "Colonel! +sir! Two of the fighters are climbing as if they've spotted something. +There go the rest." + +Coburn leaned across Janice to stare out the window. When the fighters +were below the transport, they could be seen in silhouette against the +clouds. Above, their exhaust flames pin-pointed them. Small blue flames +climbed steeply. + +The big ship went on. The roar of its motors was steady and unvarying. +From a passenger seat it was not possible to look overhead. But suddenly +there were streaking sparks against the stars. Tracer bullets. Fighters +swerved and plunged to intercept something.... + + * * * * * + +And a Thing came down out of the sky with a terrific velocity. Tracer +bullets sprayed all around it. Some could be seen to ricochet off its +sides. Flashings came from the alien craft. They were not explosions +from guns. They were lurid, actinic, smokeless blasts of pure light. The +Thing seemed to be made of polished metal. It dodged, trying to approach +the transport. The fighters lunged to prevent it. The ghastly game of +interception seemed to rush here and there all over the sky. + +The strange object was not possibly of human design or manufacture. It +had no wings. It left no trail of jet fumes or rocket smoke. It was +glittering and mirror-like, and it was shaped almost exactly like two +turtle-shells base to base. It was flat and oval. It had no visible +external features. + +It flung itself about with incredible darts and jerkings. It could stop +stock still as no plane could possibly stop, and accelerate at a rate no +human body could endure. It tried savagely to get through the swarming +fighters to the transport. Its light weapon flashed--but the pilots +would be wearing oxygen masks and there were no casualties among the +human planes. Once a fighter did fall off in a steep dive, and fluttered +almost down to the cloud bank before it recovered and came back with its +guns spitting. + +That one appeared to end the fight. It came straight up, pumping tracers +at the steel flier from below. And the glittering Thing seemed to stop +dead in the air. Then it shuddered. It was bathed in the flaring sparks +of tracers. Then-- + +It dropped like a stone, tumbling aimlessly over and over as it dropped. +It plummeted into the cloud bank. + +Suddenly the clouds were lighted from within. Something inside flared +with a momentary, terrifying radiance. No lightning bolt ever flashed +more luridly. + +The transport plane and its escort flew on and on over the moonlit bank +of clouds. + +Presently orders came by radio. On the report of this attack, the flight +plan would be changed, for safety. If the air convoy had been attacked +once, it might be attacked again. So it would be wisest to get it +immediately to where there would be plenty of protection. Therefore, the +transport plane would head for Naples. + +Nearly the whole of the United States Mediterranean fleet was in the Bay +of Naples just then. It had been there nearly a week, and by day its +liberty parties swarmed ashore. The merchants and the souvenir salesmen +were entranced. American sailors had money and they spent it. The +fleet's officers were social assets, its messes bought satisfyingly of +local viands, and everybody was happy. + +All but one small group. The newspapers of one of the Italian political +parties howled infuriatedly. They had orders to howl, from behind the +Iron Curtain. The American fleet, that one party's newspapers bellowed, +was imperialistic, capitalistic, and decadent. In short, there was +virulent propaganda against the American fleet in Naples. But most +people were glad it was there anyway. Certainly nobody stayed awake +worrying about it. + + * * * * * + +People were staying awake worrying about the transport plane carrying +Coburn and Janice, however. On the plane, Janice was fearful and pressed +close to Coburn, and he found it an absorbing experience and was moved +to talk in a low tone about other matters than extra-terrestrial +Invaders and foam suits and interstellar travel. Janice found those +other subjects surprisingly fitted to make her forget about being +afraid. + +Elsewhere, the people who stayed awake did talk about just the subjects +Coburn was avoiding. The convoy carrying Coburn to tell what he knew had +been attacked. By a plane which was definitely not made or manned by +human beings. The news flashed through the air across continents. It +went under the ocean over sea beds. It traveled in the tightest and most +closely-guarded of diplomatic codes. The Greek government gave the other +NATO nations a confidential account of the Bulgarian raid and what had +happened to it. These details were past question. The facts brought out +by Coburn were true, too. + +So secret instructions followed the news. At first they went only to +highly-trusted individuals. In thirty nations, top-ranking officials and +military officers blindfolded each other in turn and gravely stuck pins +in each other. The blindfolded person was expected to name the place +where he had been stuck. This had an historical precedent. In olden +days, pins were stuck in suspected witches. They had patches of skin in +which there was no sensation, and discovery of such areas condemned them +to death. Psychologists in later centuries found that patches of +anaesthetic skin were typical of certain forms of hysteria, and +therefore did not execute their patients. But the Invaders, by the fact +that their seemingly human bodies were not flesh at all, could not pass +such tests. + +There were consequences. A Minister of Defense of a European nation +amusedly watched the tests on his subordinates, blandly excused himself +for a moment before his own turn came, and did not come back. A general +of division vanished into thin air. Diplomatic code clerks painstakingly +decoded the instructions for such tests, and were nowhere about when +they themselves were to be tested. An eminent Hollywood director and an +Olympic champion ceased to be. + +In the free world nearly a hundred prominent individuals simply +disappeared. Few were in position to influence high-level decisions. +Many were in line to know rather significant details of world affairs. +There was alarm. + +It was plain, too, that not all disguised Invaders would have had to +vanish. Many would not even be called on for test. They would stay where +they were. And there were private persons.... + + * * * * * + +There was consternation. But Janice, in the plane, was saying softly to +Coburn: "The--creature who telephoned and said she was me. How did you +know she wasn't?" + +"I went to the Breen Foundation first," said Coburn. "I looked into your +eyes--and they were right. So I didn't need to stick a pin in you." + +The thought of Coburn not needing to stick a pin in her impressed Janice +as beautiful trust. She sighed contentedly. "Of course you'd know," she +said. "So would I--now!" She laughed a little. + +The convoy flew on. The lurid round disk of the moon descended toward +the west. + +"It'll be sunrise soon. But I imagine we'll land before dawn." + +They did. The flying group of planes flew lower. Coburn saw a single +light on the ground. It was very tiny, and it vanished rearward with +great speed. Later there was another light, and a dull-red glow in the +sky. Still later, infinitesimal twinklings on the ground at the horizon. +They increased in number but not in size, and the plane swung hugely to +the left, and the lights on the ground formed a visible pattern. And +moonlight--broken by the shadows of clouds--displayed the city and the +Bay of Naples below. + +The transport plane landed. The passengers descended. Coburn saw Hallen, +the American colonel, the Greek general, and a Greek colonel. The other +had been left behind to take charge of things in Salonika. Here the +uniforms were American, and naval. There were some Italian police in +view, but most of the men about were American seamen, ostensibly on +shore leave. But Coburn doubted very much if they were as completely +unarmed as men on shore leave usually are. + +A man in a cap with much gold braid greeted the American colonel, the +Greek general, and the Greek colonel. He came to Coburn, to whose arm +Janice seemed to cling. + +"We're taking you out to the fleet. We've taken care of everything. +Everybody's had pins stuck in him!" + +It was very humorous, of course. They moved away from the plane. +Surrounded by white-clad sailors, the party from the plane moved into +the hangar. + +Then a voice snapped a startled question, in English. An instant later +it rasped: "Stop or I'll shoot!" + +Then there was a bright flash of light. The interior of the hangar was +made vivid by it. It went out. And as it disappeared there were the +sounds of running footsteps. Only they did not run properly. They ran in +great leaps. Impossible leaps. Monstrous leaps. A man might run like +that on the moon, with a lesser gravity. A creature accustomed to much +greater gravity might run like that on Earth. But it would not be human. + +It got away. + +There was a waiting car. They got into it. They pulled out from the +airport with other cars close before and behind. The cavalcade raced for +the city and the shoreline surrounded by a guard less noisy but no less +effective than the Greek motorcycle troopers. + +But the Greek general said something meditative in the dark interior of +the car. + +"What's that?" demanded someone authoritatively. + +The Greek general said it again, mildly. This latest attempt to seize +them or harm them--if it was that--had been surprisingly inept. It was +strange that creatures able to travel between the stars and put +regiments and tanks out of action should fail so dismally to kill or +kidnap Coburn, if they really wanted to. Could it be that they were not +quite sincere in their efforts? + +"That," said the authoritative voice, "is an idea!" + +They reached the waterfront. And here in the darkest part of the night +and with the moon near to setting, the waters of the Bay of Naples +rolled in small, smooth-surfaced, tranquil waves. There was a Navy barge +waiting. Those who had come by plane boarded it. It cast off and headed +out into the middle of the huge harbor. + +In minutes there was a giant hull looming overhead. They stepped out +onto a landing ladder and climbed interminably up the ship's metal side. +Then there was an open door. + +"Now," said the American colonel triumphantly, "now everything's all +right! Nothing can happen now, short of an atomic bomb!" + +The Greek general glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes. He said +something in that heavy accent of his. He asked mildly if +creatures--Invaders--who could travel between the stars were unlikely to +be able to make atom bombs if they wanted to. + +There was no answer. But somebody led Coburn into an office where this +carrier's skipper was at his desk. He looked at Coburn with a sardonic, +unfriendly eye. + +"Mr. Coburn, I believe," he said remotely. "You've been very well +staged-managed by your friends, Mr. Coburn. They've made it look as if +they were trying hard to kill you, eh? But we know better, don't we? We +know it's all a build-up for you to make a deal for them, eh? Well, Mr. +Coburn, you'll find it's going to be a let-down instead! You're not +officially under arrest, but I wouldn't advise you to try to start +anything, Mr. Coburn! We're apt to be rather crude in dealing with +emissaries of enemies of all the human race. And don't forget it!" + +And this was Coburn's first inkling that he was regarded as a traitor of +his planet who had sold out to the Invaders. All the plans made from his +information would be based on the supposition that he intended to betray +mankind by misleading it. + +[Illustration] + + +V + +It was not yet forty-eight hours since Coburn had been interrupted in +the act of starting his car up in Ardea. Greek newspapers had splashed +lurid headlines of a rumored invasion by Bulgarians, and their rumored +defeat. The story was not widely copied. It sounded too unlikely. In a +few hours it would be time for a new set of newspapers to begin to +appear. Not one of them would print a single word about the most +important disclosure in human history: that extra-terrestrial Invaders +moved blandly about among human beings without being suspected. + +The newspapers didn't know it. On inside pages and bottom corners, the +London papers might refer briefly to the remarkable rumor that had swept +over Greece about an invasion force said to have crossed its border. The +London papers would say that the Greek government officially denied that +such a happening had taken place. The New York papers would be full of a +political scandal among municipal officials, the Washington papers would +deal largely with a Congressional investigation committee hearing, Los +Angeles would have a new and gory murder to exploit, San Francisco news +would be of a waterfront strike, Tokyo would talk of cherry blossoms, +Delhi of Pakistan, and the French press would discuss the political +crisis. But no newspaper, anywhere, would talk about Invaders. + + * * * * * + +In the United States, radar technicians had been routed out of bed and +informed that night fighters had had a fight with an alien ship manned +by non-humans and had destroyed it, but their radars detected nothing at +all. An hour after sunrise in Naples they had come up with a +combination of radar frequencies which were built to detect everything. +Instructions were going out in code to all radar establishments on how +to set it up on existing equipment. Long before that time, business +machines had begun intricate operations with punched cards containing +all known facts about the people known to have dropped out of sight. +Other machines began to integrate crackpot reports of things sighted in +divers places. The stores of Hunter and Nereid rockets--especially the +remote-control jobs--were broken out. Great Air Transport planes began +to haul them to where they might be needed. + +In England, certain establishments that had never been mentioned even in +Parliament were put on war alert. There was frantic scurrying-about in +France. In Sweden, a formerly ignored scientist was called to a +twice-scrambled telephone connection and consulted at length about +objects reported over Sweden's skies. The Canadian Air Force tumbled out +in darkness and was briefed. In Chile there was agitation, and in Peru. + +There was earnest effort to secure cooeperation from behind the Iron +Curtain, but that did not work. The Iron Curtain stood pat, demanding +the most detailed of information and the privilege of inspecting all +weapons intended for use against anybody so far unnamed, but refusing +all information of its own. In fact, there was a very normal reaction +everywhere, except that the newspapers didn't know anything to print. + +These secret hassles were continuing as the dawnlight moved over Italy +and made Naples and its harbor quite the most beautiful place in the +world. When daylight rolled over France, matters were beginning to fall +into pattern. As daybreak moved across the Atlantic, at least the +measures to be taken began to be visualized and orders given for their +accomplishment. + +And then, with sunrise in America, real preparations got under way. + +But hours earlier there was consultation on the carrier in the Bay of +Naples. Coburn sat in a wardroom in a cold fury which was in part +despair. He had been kept in complete ignorance of all measures taken, +and he felt the raging indignation of a man accused of treason. He was +being questioned again. He was treated with an icy courtesy that was +worse than accusation. The carrier skipper mentioned with detachment +that, of course, Coburn had never been in any danger. Obviously. The +event in the airport at Salonika and the attack on the convoy were +window-dressing. They were not attempts to withdraw him from +circulation, but to draw attention to him. Which, of course, implied +that the Invaders--whoever or whatever they might be--considered Coburn +a useful tool for whatever purpose they intended. + +This was before the conference officially began. It took time to +arrange. There were radio technicians with microphones. The +consultation--duly scrambled and re-scrambled--would be relayed to +Washington while it was on. It was a top level conference. Hallen was +included, but he did not seem happy. + + * * * * * + +Then things were ready. The skipper of the carrier took over, with full +awareness that the very highest brass in Washington was listening to +every word. + +"We can skip your technical information, Mr. Coburn," he said with +ironic courtesy, "unless you've something new to offer." + +Coburn shook his head. He seethed. + +"For the record," said the skipper, "I repeat that it is obvious that +your presence at the scene when those Bulgarians were knocked out, that +you were attacked in Salonika, that the ship carrying you was also +attacked, and that there was an incident on your landing here:--it's +obvious that all these things were stage-managed to call attention to +you, for the purposes of ... whoever staged them. Have you anything more +to offer?" + +"No," growled Coburn. "I've told all I know." He was furiously angry and +felt completely helpless. + +"Your information," purred the Skipper, "and the stage-managed +incidents, make you look like a very patriotic citizen who is feared by +the supposedly extra-terrestrial creatures. But we don't have to play +any longer, Mr. Coburn. What were you told to tell your government? What +do these ... extra-terrestrials want?" + +"My guess," snapped Coburn, "is that they want Earth." + +The skipper raised his eyebrows. "Are you threatening us in their name?" +he asked, purring. + +"I'm telling you my guess," said Coburn hotly. "It's just as good as +yours and no better! I have no instructions from them. I have no message +from them. I've only my own opinion, which is that we humans had better +get ready to fight. I believe we ought to join together--all of +Earth--and get set to defend ourselves." + +There was silence. Coburn found himself regarding the faces around him +with an unexpected truculence. Janice pressed his hand warningly. + +"All of Earth," said the skipper softly. "Hmmmm. You advise an +arrangement with all the Earth.... What are your politics, Mr. +Coburn?--No, let us say, what are the political views of the +extra-terrestrial creatures you tell us about? We have to know." + +Coburn seethed. "If you're suggesting that this is a cold war trick," he +said furiously, "--if they were faking it, they wouldn't try tricks! +They'd make war! They'd try conquest!" + +Coburn saw the stout Greek general nodding to himself. But the Skipper +said suavely: "You were with one of the creatures, you say, up in the +village of Naousa. Would you say he seemed unfriendly to the +Bulgarians?" + +"He was playing the part of an Englishman," snapped Coburn, "trying to +stop a raid, and murders, and possibly a war--all of them unnecessary!" + +"You don't paint a frightening picture," complained the skipper +ironically. "First you say we have to fight him and his kind, and then +you imply that he was highly altruistic. What is the fact?" + +"Dammit!" said Coburn. "I hated him because he wasn't human. It made my +flesh crawl to see him act so much like a man when he wasn't. But he +made me feel ashamed when I held a gun on him and he proved he wasn't +human just so Janice--so Miss Ames wouldn't be afraid to drive down to +Salonika with me!" + +"So you have some ... friendly feelings toward him, eh?" the skipper +said negligently. "How will you get in touch with his kind, by the way? +_If_ we should ask you to? Of course you've got it all arranged? Just in +case." + +Coburn knew that absolutely nothing could be done with a man who was +trying to show off his shrewdness to his listening superiors. He said +disgustedly: "That's the last straw. Go to hell!" + +A loud-speaker spoke suddenly. Its tone was authoritative, and there +were little cracklings of static in it from its passage across the +Atlantic. + +"That line of questioning can be dropped, Captain. Mr. Coburn, did these +aliens have any other chances to kill you?" + +"Plenty!" snapped Coburn. "And easy ones. One of them came into my +office as my secretary. She could have killed me. The man who passed for +Major Pangalos could have shot us all while we were unconscious. I don't +know why they didn't get the transport plane, and I don't know what +their scheme is. I'm telling the facts. They're contradictory. I can't +help that. All I have are the facts." + +The loud-speaker said crisply: "The attack on the transport plane--any +pilots present who were in that fight?" + +Someone at the back said: "Yes, sir. Here." + +"How good was their ship? Could it have been a guided missile?" + +"No, sir. No guided missile. Whoever drove that ship was right on board. +And that ship was good. It could climb as fast as we could dive, and no +human could have taken the accelerations and the turns it made. Whoever +drove it learned fast, too. He was clumsy at the beginning, but he +learned. If we hadn't gotten in a lucky hit, he'd've had us where he +wanted us in a little while more. Our fifty-calibres just bounced off +that hull!" + +The loud-speaker said curtly: "If that impression is justified, that's +the first business to be taken up. All but flying officers are excused. +Mr. Coburn can go, too." + +There was a stirring everywhere in the room. Officers got up and walked +out. Coburn stood. The Greek general came over to him and patted him on +the shoulder, beaming. Janice went out with him. They arrived on the +carrier's deck. This was the very earliest hour of dawn, and the +conference had turned abruptly to a discussion of arms and tactics as +soon as Washington realized that its planes were inadequate for +fighting. Which was logical enough, but Coburn was pretty sure it was +useless. + +"If anybody else in the world feels as futile as I do," said Coburn +bitterly, "I feel sorry for him!" + +Janice said softly: "You've got me." + +But that was less than complete comfort. It is inborn in a man that he +needs to feel superior. No man can feel pride before the woman of his +choice while there is something stronger than himself. And Coburn +especially wanted to feel that pride just now. + +There were very probably discussions of the important part of what +Coburn had reported, of course, during the rest of the morning. But +there was much more discussion of purely military measures. And of +course there were attempts to get military intelligence. Things were +reported in the sky near South Africa, and from Honolulu--where nobody +would ignore what a radar said again, especially the juiced-up equipment +just modified on orders--and from other places. Not all the reports were +authentic, of course. If there were any observations inside the Iron +Curtain, the Iron Curtain countries kept them to themselves. Politics +was much more important than anything else, in that part of the world. + +But Coburn need not have felt as futile as he did. There was just one +really spectacular occurrence in connection with the Invaders that day, +and it happened where Coburn was. Almost certainly, it happened because +Coburn was there. Though there is reason to believe that the newspaper +campaign on shore, declaring that the American fleet risked the lives of +all Naples by its mere presence, had something to do with it too. + +It was very spectacular. + + * * * * * + +It happened just after midday when the city and its harbor were at their +most glamorous. Coburn and Janice were above when it began. There was an +ensign assigned to escort Coburn about and keep an eye on him, and he +took them on a carefully edited tour of the carrier. He took them to the +radar room which was not secret any longer. He explained reservedly that +there was a new tricked-up arrangement of radar which it was believed +would detect turtle-shaped metal ships if they appeared. + +The radar room was manned, of course. It always was, with a cold war in +being. Overhead, the bowl cages of the radars moved restlessly and +rhythmically. Outside, on deck, the huge elevator that brought planes up +from below rose at the most deliberate of peace-time rates. + +The ensign said negligently, pointing to the radar-screen: "That little +speck is a plane making for the landing field on shore. This other one +is a plane coming down from Genoa. You'd need a good pair of binoculars +to see it. It's a good thirty-five miles away." + +Just then, one of the two radar-men on duty pushed a button and snapped +into a microphone: "Sir! Radar-pip directly overhead! Does not show on +normal radar. Elevation three hundred thousand feet, descending +rapidly." His voice cut off suddenly. + +A metallic voice said: "Relay!" + +The ensign in charge of Coburn and Janice seemed to freeze. The +radar-man pressed a button, which would relay that particular +radar-screen's contents to the control room for the whole ship. There +was a pause of seconds. Then bells began to ring everywhere. They were +battle gongs. + +There was a sensation of stirring all over the ship. Doors closed with +soft hissings. Men ran furiously. The gongs rang. + +The ensign said politely: "I'll take you below now." + +He led them very swiftly to a flight of stairs. There was a monstrous +bellowing on the carrier's deck. Something dark went hurtling down its +length, with a tail of pale-blue flame behind it. It vanished. Men were +still running. The elevator shot into full-speed ascent. A plane rolled +off it. The elevator dropped. + +An engine roared. Another. Yet another. A second dark and deadly thing +flashed down the deck and was gone. There was a rumbling. + +The battle gongs cut off. The rumbling below seemed to increase. There +was a curious vibration. The ship moved. Coburn could feel that it +moved. It was turning. + +The ensign led them somewhere and said: "This is a good place. You'd +better stay right here." + +He ran. They heard him running. He was gone. + +They were in a sort of ward room--not of the morning conference--and +there were portholes through which they could look. The city which was +Naples seemed to swing smoothly past the ship. They saw other ships. A +cruiser was under way with its anchor still rising from the water. It +dripped mud and a sailor was quite ridiculously playing a hose on it. It +ascended and swayed and its shank went smoothly into the hawse-hole. +There were guns swinging skyward. Some were still covered by canvas +hoods. The hoods vanished before the cruiser swung out of the porthole's +line of vision. + +A destroyer leaped across the space they could see, full speed ahead. +The water below them began to move more rapidly. It began to pass by +with the speed of ground past an express train. And continually, +monotonously, there were roarings which climaxed and died in the +distance. + +"The devil!" said Coburn. "I've got to see this. They can't kill us for +looking." + + * * * * * + +He opened the door. Janice, holding fast to his arm, followed as he went +down a passage. Another door. They were on the deck side of the island +which is the superstructure of a carrier, and they were well out of the +way, and everybody in sight was too busy to notice them. + +The elevator worked like the piston of a pump. It vanished and +reappeared and a plane came off. Men in vividly-colored suits swarmed +about it, and the elevator was descending again. The plane roared, shot +down the deck, and was gone to form one of the string of climbing +objects which grew smaller with incredible swiftness as they shot for +the sky. Coburn saw another carrier. There was a huge bow-wave before +it. Destroyers ringed it, seeming to bounce in the choppy sea made by so +many great ships moving so close together. + +The other carrier, too, was shooting planes into the air like bullets +from a gun. The American Mediterranean fleet was putting out to sea at +emergency-speed, getting every flying craft aloft that could be gotten +away. A cruiser swung a peculiar crane-like arm, there was a puff of +smoke and a plane came into being. The crane retracted. Another plane. A +third. + +The fleet was out of the harbor, speeding at thirty knots, with +destroyers weaving back and forth at higher speeds still. There were +barges left behind in the harbor with sailors in them,--shore-parties or +details who swore bitterly when they were left behind. They surged up +and down on the melee of waves the fleet left behind in its hasty +departure. + +On the fleet itself there was a brisk tenseness as it sped away from the +land. Vesuvius still loomed high, but the city dwindled to a mere +blinking mass of white specks which were its buildings. The sea was +aglitter with sunlight reflected from the waves. There was the smell of +salt air. + +Men began to take cryptic measures for the future. They strung cables +across the deck from side to side. Arresting gear for planes which would +presently land. + +Their special ensign found Coburn and Janice. "I'm supposed to stay with +you," he explained politely. "I thought I could be of use. I'm really +attached to another ship, but I was on board because of the hassle last +night." + +Coburn said: "This would be invader stuff, wouldn't it?" + +The ensign shrugged. "Apparently. You heard what the radar said. +Something at three hundred thousand feet, descending rapidly. It's not a +human-built ship. Anyway, we've sent up all our planes. Jets will meet +it first, at fifty thousand. If it gets through them there are ... other +measures, of course." + +"This one beats me!" said Coburn. "Why?" + +The ensign shrugged again. "They tried for you last night." + +"I'm not that important, to them or anybody else. Or am I?" + +"I wouldn't know," said the ensign. + +"I don't know anything I haven't told," said Coburn grimly, "and the +creatures can't suppress any information by killing me now. Anyhow, if +they'd wanted to they'd have done it." + +A dull, faint sound came from high overhead. Coburn stepped out from +under the shelter of the upper works of the island. He stared up into +the sky. He saw a lurid spot of blue-white flame. He saw others. He +realized that all the sky was interlaced with contrails--vapor-trails of +jet-planes far up out of sight. But they were fine threads. The jets +were up very high indeed. The pin-points of flame were explosions. + +"Using wing-rockets," said the ensign hungrily, "since fifty-calibres +did no good last night, until one made a lucky hit. Rockets with +proximity fuses. Our jets don't carry cannon." + +There were more explosions. There was a bright glint of reflected +sunshine. It was momentary, but Coburn knew that it was from a flat, +bright space-ship, which had tilted in some monstrously abrupt maneuver, +and the almost vertical sunshine shone down from its surface. + +The ensign said in a very quiet voice: "The fight's coming lower." + +There was a crashing thump in the air. A battleship was firing +eight-inch guns almost straight up. Other guns began. + +Guns began to fire on the carrier, too, below the deck and beyond it. +Concussion waves beat at Coburn's body. He thrust Janice behind him to +shield her, but there could be no shielding. + +The air was filled with barkings and snarlings and the unbelievably +abrupt roar of heavy guns. The carrier swerved, so swiftly that it +tilted and swerved again. The other ships of the fleet broke their +straight-away formation and began to move in bewildering patterns. The +blue sea was criss-crossed with wakes. Once a destroyer seemed to slide +almost under the bow of the carrier. The destroyer appeared unharmed on +the other side, its guns all pointed skyward and emitting seemingly +continuous blasts of flame and thunder. + + * * * * * + +The ensign grabbed Coburn's shoulder and pointed, his hands shaking. + +There was the Invader ship. It was exactly as Coburn had known it would +be. It was tiny. It seemed hardly larger than some of the planes that +swooped at it. But the planes were drawing back now. The shining metal +thing was no more than two thousand feet up and it was moving in +erratic, unpredictable darts and dashes here and there, like a +dragon-fly's movements, but a hundred times more swift. Proximity-fused +shells burst everywhere about it. It burst through a still-expanding +puff of explosive smoke, darted down a hundred feet, and took a zig-zag +course of such violent and angular changes of position that it looked +more like a streak of metal lightning than anything else. + +It was down to a thousand feet. It shot toward the fleet at a speed +which was literally that of a projectile. It angled off to one side and +back, and suddenly dropped again and plunged crazily through the maze of +ships from one end to the other, no more than fifty feet above the water +and with geysers of up-flung sea all about it from the shells that +missed. + +Then it sped away with a velocity which simply was not conceivable. It +was the speed of a cannonball. It was headed straight toward a distant, +stubby, draggled tramp-steamer which plodded toward the Bay of Naples. + +It rose a little as it flew. And then it checked, in mid-air. It hung +above the dumpy freighter, and there were salvoes of all the guns in the +fleet. But at the flashes it shot skyward. When the shells arrived and +burst, it was gone. + +It could still be sighted as a spark of sunlight shooting for the +heavens. Jets roared toward it. It vanished. + +Coburn heard the ensign saying in a flat voice: "If that wasn't +accelerating at fifteen Gs, I never saw a ship. If it wasn't +accelerating at fifteen Gs ..." + +And that was all. There was nothing else to shoot at. There was nothing +else to do. Jets ranged widely, looking for something that would offer +battle, but the radars said that the metal ship had gone up to three +hundred miles and then headed west and out of radar range. There had not +been time for the French to set up paired radar-beam outfits anyhow, so +they couldn't spot it, and in any case its course seemed to be toward +northern Spain, where there was no radar worth mentioning. + +Presently somebody noticed the dingy, stubby, draggled tramp steamer +over which the Invaders' craft had hovered. It was no longer on course. +It had turned sidewise and wallowed heavily. Its bow pointed +successively to every point of the compass. + +It looked bad. Salvoes of the heaviest projectiles in the Fleet had been +fired to explode a thousand feet above it. Perhaps-- + +A destroyer went racing to see. As it drew near--Coburn learned this +later--it saw a man's body hanging in a sagging heap over the railing of +its bridge. There was nobody visible at the wheel. There were four men +lying on its deck, motionless. + +The skipper of the destroyer went cold. He brought his ship closer. It +was not big, this tramp. Maybe two thousand tons. It was low in the +water. It swayed and surged and wallowed and rolled. + +Men from the destroyer managed to board it. It was completely unharmed. +They found one small sign of the explosions overhead. One fragment of an +exploded shell had fallen on board, doing no damage. + +Even the crew was unharmed. But every man was asleep. Each one slumbered +heavily. Each breathed stertorously. They could not be awakened. They +would need oxygen to bring them to. + + * * * * * + +A party from the destroyer went on board to bring the ship into harbor. +The officer in charge tried to find out the ship's name. + +There was not a document to be found to show what the ship's name was or +where it had come from or what it carried as cargo. That was strange. +The officer looked in the pockets of the two men in the wheel house. +There was not a single identifying object on either of them. He grew +disturbed. He made a really thorough search. Every sleeping man was +absolutely anonymous. Then--still on the way to harbor--a really +fine-tooth-comb examination of the ship began. + +Somebody's radium-dial watch began to glow brightly. The searchers +looked at each other and went pale. They hunted frantically, fear +making them clumsy. + +They found it. Rather--they found them. + +The stubby tramp had an adequate if rather clumsy atomic bomb in each of +its two holds. The lading of the ship was of materials which--according +to theory--should be detonated in atomic explosion if an atomic bomb +went off nearby. Otherwise they could not be detonated. + +The anonymous tramp-steamer had been headed for the harbor of Naples, +whose newspapers--at least those of a certain political party--had been +screaming of the danger of an atomic explosion while American warships +were anchored there. + +It was not likely that two atom bombs and a shipload of valuable +secondary atomic explosive had been put on a carefully nameless ship +just to be taken for a ride. If this ship had anchored among the +American fleet and if it had exploded in the Bay of Naples ... + +The prophecies of a certain political party would seem to have been +fulfilled. The American ships would be destroyed. Naples itself would be +destroyed. And it would have appeared that Europeans who loved the great +United States had made a mistake. + +It was, odd, though, that this ship was the only one that the Invaders' +flying craft had struck with its peculiar weapon. + + +VI + +We humans are rational beings, but we are not often reasonable. Those +who more or less handle us in masses have to take account of that fact. +It could not be admitted that the fleet had had a fight with a ship +piloted by Invaders from another solar system. It would produce a wild +panic, beside which even a war would be relatively harmless. So the +admiral of the Mediterranean fleet composed an order commending his men +warmly for their performance in an unrehearsed firing-drill. Their +target had been--so the order said--a new type of guided missile +recently developed by hush-hush agencies of the Defense Department. The +admiral was pleased and proud, and happy.... + +It was an excellent order, but it wasn't true. The admiral wasn't happy. +Not after battle photographs were developed and he could see how the +alien ship had dodged rockets with perfect ease, and had actually taken +a five-inch shell, which exploded on impact, without a particle of +damage. + +On the carrier, the Greek general said mildly to Coburn that the +Invaders had used their power very strangely. After stopping an invasion +of Greece, they had prevented an atomic-bomb explosion which would have +killed some hundreds of thousands of people. And it was strange that +the turtle-shaped ship that had attacked the air transport was so +clumsily handled as compared with this similar craft which had zestfully +dodged all the missiles a fleet could throw at it. + +Coburn thought hard. "I think I see," he said slowly. "You mean, they're +here and they know all they need to know. But instead of coming out into +the open, they're making governments recognize their existence. They're +letting the rulers of Earth know they can't be resisted. But we did +knock off one of their ships last night!" + +The Greek general pointedly said nothing. Coburn caught his meaning. The +fleet, firing point-blank, had not destroyed its target. The ship last +night had seemed to fall into a cloud bank and explode. But nobody had +seen it blow up. Maybe it hadn't. + +"Humoring us!" realized Coburn. "They don't want to destroy our +civilization, so they'll humor us. But they want our governments to know +that they can do as they please. If our governments know we can't +resist, they think we'll surrender. But they're wrong." + +The Greek general looked at him enigmatically. + +"We've still got one trick left," said Coburn. "Atomic bombs. And if +they fail, we can still get killed fighting them another way." + +There was a heavy, droning noise far away. It increased and drew nearer. +It was a multi-engined plane which came from the west and settled down, +and hovered over the water and touched and instantly created a spreading +wake of foam. + +The fleet was back at anchor then. It was enclosed in the most beautiful +combination of city and scene that exists anywhere. Beyond the city the +blunted cone of Vesuvius rose. In the city, newspaper vendors shrilly +hawked denunciations of the American ships because of the danger that +their atom bombs might explode. Well outside the harbor, a Navy crew of +experts worked to make quite impossible the detonation of atomic bombs +in a stubby tramp-steamer which had--plausibly, at least--been sent to +make those same newspapers' prophecies of disaster come true. + + * * * * * + +A long, long time passed, while consultations took place to which Coburn +was not invited. Then a messenger led him to the wardroom of the +previous conference. He recognized the men who had landed by seaplane a +while since. One was a cabinet member from Washington. There was someone +of at least equal importance from London, picked up en route. There were +generals and admirals. The service officers looked at Coburn with +something like accusation in their eyes. He was the means by which they +had come to realize their impotence. The Greek general sat quietly in +the rear. + +"Mr. Coburn," said the Secretary from Washington. "We've been canvassing +the situation. It seems that we simply are not prepared to offer +effective resistance--not yet--to the ... invaders you tell us about. We +know of no reason why this entire fleet could not have been disabled as +effectively as the tramp-steamer offshore. You know about that ship?" + +Coburn nodded. The Greek general had told him. The Secretary went on +painfully: "Now, the phenomena we have to ascribe to Invaders fall into +two categories. One is the category of their action against the +Bulgarian raiding force, and today the prevention of the cold-war murder +of some hundreds of thousands of people. That category suggests that +they are prepared--on terms--to be amiable. A point in their favor." + +Coburn set his lips. + +"The other group of events simply points you out and builds you up as a +person of importance to these Invaders. You seem to be extremely +important to them. They doubtless could have killed you. They did not. +What they did do was bring you forward to official attention. Presumably +they had a realistic motive in this." + +"I don't know what it could be," said Coburn coldly. "I blundered into +one affair. I figured out a way to detect them. I happened to be the +means by which they were proved to exist. That's all. It was an +accident." + +The Secretary looked skeptical. "Your discoveries were remarkably ... +apt. And it does seem clear that they made the appearance of hunting +you, while going to some pains not to catch you. Mr. Coburn, how can we +make contact with them?" + +Coburn wanted to swear furiously. He was still being considered a +traitor. Only they were trying to make use of his treason. + +"I have no idea," he said grimly. + +"What do they want?" + +"I would say--Earth," he said grimly. + +"You deny that you are an authorized intermediary for them?" + +"Absolutely," said Coburn. There was silence. The Greek general spoke +mildly from the back of the room. He said in his difficult English that +Coburn's personal motives did not matter. But if the Invaders had picked +him out as especially important, it was possible that they felt him +especially qualified to talk to them. The question was, would he try to +make contact with them? + +The Secretary looked pained, but he turned to Coburn. "Mr. Coburn?" + +Coburn said, "I've no idea how to set about it, but I'll try on one +condition. There's one thing we haven't tried against them. Set up an +atom-bomb booby-trap, and I'll sit on it. If they try to contact me, you +can either listen in or try to blow them up, and me with them!" + +There was buzzing comment. Perhaps--Coburn's nails bit into his palms +when this was suggested--perhaps this was a proposal to let the Invaders +examine an atomic bomb, American-style. It was said in earnest +simplicity. But somebody pointed out that a race which could travel +between the stars and had ships such as the Mediterranean fleet had +tried to shoot down, would probably find American atomic bombs rather +primitive. Still-- + + * * * * * + +The Greek general again spoke mildly. If the Invaders were to be made to +realize that Coburn was trying to contact them, he should return to +Greece. He should visibly take up residence where he could be +approached. He should, in fact, put himself completely at the mercy of +the Invaders. + +"Ostensibly," agreed the Secretary. + +The Greek general then said diffidently that he had a small villa some +twenty miles from the suburbs of Salonika. The prevailing winds were +such that if an atomic explosion occurred there, it would not endanger +anybody. He offered it. + +"I'll live there," asked Coburn coldly, "and wait for them to come to +me? I'll have microphones all about so that every word that's said will +be relayed to your recorders? And there'll be a bomb somewhere about +that you can set off by remote control? Is that the idea?" + +Then Janice spoke up. And Coburn flared into anger against her. But she +was firm. Coburn saw the Greek general smiling slyly. + +They left the conference while the decision was made. And they were in +private, and Janice talked to him. There are methods of argument against +which a man is hopeless. She used them. She said that she, not Coburn, +might be the person the Invaders might have wanted to take out of +circulation, because she might have noticed something important she +hadn't realized yet. When Coburn pointed out that he'd be living over an +atomic bomb, triggered to be set off from a hundred miles away, she +demanded fiercely to know if he realized how she'd feel if she weren't +there too.... + +Next day an aircraft carrier put out of Naples with an escort of +destroyers. It traveled at full speed down the toe of Italy's boot, +through the Straits of Messina, across the Adriatic, and rounded the +end of Greece and went streaking night and day for Salonika. Special +technicians sent by plane beat her time by days. The Greek general was +there well ahead. And he expansively supervised while his inherited, +isolated villa was prepared for the reception of Invaders--and Coburn +and Janice. + +And Coburn and Janice were married. It was an impressive wedding, +because it was desirable for the Invaders to know about it. It was +brilliantly military with uniforms and glittering decorations and +innumerable important people whom neither of them knew or cared about. + +If it had been anybody else's wedding Coburn would have found it +unspeakably dreary. The only person present whom he knew beside Janice +was Hallen. He acted as groomsman, with the air of someone walking on +eggs. After it was over he shook hands with a manner of tremendous +relief. + +"Maybe I'll brag about this some day," he told Coburn uneasily. "But +right now I'm scared to death. What do you two really expect to happen?" + +Janice smiled at him. "Why," she said, "we expect to live happily ever +after." + +"Oh yes," said Hallen uncomfortably. "But that wasn't just what I had in +mind." + + +VII + +The world wagged on. The newspapers knew nothing about super-secret +top-level worries. There was not a single news story printed anywhere +suggesting an invasion of Earth from outer space. There were a few more +Flying Saucer yarns than normal, and it was beginning to transpire that +an unusual number of important people were sick, or on vacation, or +otherwise out of contact with the world. But, actually, not one of the +events in which Coburn and Janice had been concerned reached the state +of being news. Even the shooting off the Bay of Naples was explained as +an emergency drill. + +Quietly, a good many things happened. Cryptic orders passed around, and +oxygen tanks were accumulated in military posts. Hunter and Nereid +guided missiles were set up as standard equipment in a number of +brand-new places. They were loaded for bear. But days went by, and +nothing happened. Nothing at all. But officialdom was not at ease. + +If anything--while the wide world went happily about its +business--really high-level officialdom grew more unhappy day by day. +Coburn and Janice flew back to Salonika. They went in a Navy plane with +a fighter plane escort. They landed at the Salonika airport, and the +Greek general was among those who greeted them. + +He took them out to the villa he'd placed at the disposal of high +authority for their use. He displayed it proudly. There was absolutely +no sign that it had been touched by anybody since its original builders +had finished with it two-hundred-odd years before. The American officer +who had wired it, though--he looked as if he were short a week's +sleep--showed them how anywhere on the grounds or in the house they +would need only to speak a code-word and they'd instantly be answered. + +There were servants, and the Greek general took Coburn aside and assured +him that there was one room which absolutely was not wired for sound. He +named it. + +So they took up a relatively normal way of life. Sometimes they decided +that it would be pleasant to drive in to Salonika. They mentioned it, +and went out and got in the car that went with the villa. Oddly, there +was always some aircraft lazying about overhead by the time they were +out of the gate. They always returned before sunset. And sometimes they +swam in the water before the villa's door. Then, also, they were careful +to be back on solid ground before sunset. That was so their guards out +on the water wouldn't have to worry. + +But it was a nagging and an unhappy business to know that they were +watched and overheard everywhere save in that one unwired room. It could +have made for tension between them. But there was another thought to +hold them together. This was the knowledge that they were literally +living on top of a bomb. If an Invader's flying ship descended at the +villa, everything that happened would be heard and seen by microphones +and concealed television cameras. If the Invaders were too arrogant, or +if they were arbitrary, there would be a test to see if their ship could +exist in the heart of an atom-bomb explosion. + + * * * * * + +Coburn and Janice, then, were happy after a fashion. But nobody could +call their situation restful. + +They had very few visitors. The Greek general came out meticulously +every day. Hallen came out once, but he knew about the atomic bomb. He +didn't stay long. When they'd been in residence a week, the General +telephoned zestfully that he was going to bring out some company. His +English was so mangled and obscure that Coburn wondered cynically if +whoever listened to their tapped telephone could understand him. But, +said the General in high good humor, he was playing a good joke. He had +hunted up Helena, who was Coburn's secretary, and he had also invited +Dillon to pay a visit to some charming people he knew. It would be a +great joke to see Dillon's face. + +There was a fire in the living room that night. The Greek servants had +made it, and Coburn thought grimly that they were braver men and women +than he'd have been. They didn't have to risk their lives. They could +have refused this particular secret-service assignment. But they hadn't. + +A voice spoke from the living-room ceiling, a clipped American voice. +"Mr. Coburn, a car is coming." + +That was standard. When the General arrived; when the occasional +delivery of telephoned-for supplies came; on the one occasion when a +peddler on foot had entered the ground. It lacked something of being the +perfect atmosphere for a honeymoon, but it was the way things were. + +Presently there were headlights outside. The Greek butler went to greet +the guests. Coburn and Janice heard voices. The General was in +uproarious good humor. He came in babbling completely uncomprehensible +English. + +There was Helena. She smiled warmly at Coburn. She went at once to +Janice. "How do you do?" she said in her prettily accented English. "I +have missed not working for your husband, but this is my fiance!" + +And Janice shook hands with a slick-haired young Greek who looked +pleasant enough, but did not seem to her as remarkable as Coburn. + +Then Dillon stared at Coburn. + +"The devil!" he said, with every evidence of indignation. "This is the +chap--" + +The General roared, and Coburn said awkwardly: "I owe you an apology, +and the privilege of a poke in the nose besides. But it was a +situation--I was in a state--" + +Then the General howled with laughter. Helena laughed. Her fiance +laughed. And Dillon grinned amusedly at Coburn. + + * * * * * + +"My dear fellow!" said Dillon. "We are the guests this whole villa was +set up to receive! The last time I saw you was in Naousa, and the last +time Helena saw you you stuck pins in her, and--" + +Coburn stiffened. He went slowly pale. + +"I--see! You're the foam-suit people, eh?" Then he looked with hot +passion at the General. "You!" he said grimly. "You I didn't suspect. +You've made fools of all of us, I think." + +The General said something obscure which could have been a proverb. It +was to the effect that nobody could tell a fat man was cross-eyed when +he laughed. + +"Yes," said Dillon beaming. "He is fat. So his eyes don't look like +they're different. You have to see past his cheeks and eyebrows. That's +how he passed muster. And he slept very soundly after the airport +affair." + +Coburn felt a sort of sick horror. The General had passed as a man, and +he'd loaned this villa, and he knew all about the installation of the +atomic bomb.... Then Coburn looked through a doorway and there was his +Greek butler standing in readiness with a submachine-gun in his hands. + +"I take it this is an official call," said Coburn steadily. "In that +case you know we're overheard--or did the General cancel that?" + +"Oh, yes!" said Dillon. "We know all about the trap we've walked into. +But we'd decided that the time had come to appear in the open anyhow. +You people are very much like us, incidentally. Apparently there's only +one real way that a truly rational brain can work. And we and you Earth +people both have it. May we sit down?" + +Janice said: "By all means!" + +Helena sat, with an absolutely human gesture of spreading her skirt +beside her. The General plumped into a chair and chuckled. The +slick-haired young man politely offered Janice a cigarette and lighted +Helena's for her. Dillon leaned against the mantel above the fire. + +"Well?" said Coburn harshly. "You can state your terms. What do you want +and what do you propose to do to get it?" + +Dillon shook his head. He took a deep breath. "I want you to listen, +Coburn. I know about the atom bomb planted somewhere around, and I know +I'm talking for my life. You know we aren't natives of Earth. You've +guessed that we come from a long way off. We do. Now--we found out the +trick of space travel some time ago. You're quite welcome to it. We +found it, and we started exploring. We've been in space, you might say, +just about two of your centuries. You're the only other civilized race +we've found. That's point one." + +Coburn fumbled in his pocket. He found a cigarette. Dillon held a match. +Coburn started, and then accepted it. + +"Go on." He added, "There's a television camera relaying this, by the +way. Did you know?" + +"Yes, I know," said Dillon. "Now, having about two centuries the start +of you, we have a few tricks you haven't found out yet. For one thing, +we understand ourselves, and you, better than you do. We've some +technical gadgets you haven't happened on yet. However, it's entirely +possible for you to easily kill the four of us here tonight. If you +do--you do. But there are others of our race here. That's point two." + +"Now come the threats and demands," said Coburn. + +"Perhaps." But Dillon seemed to hesitate. "Dammit, Coburn, you're a +reasonable man. Try to think like us a moment. What would you do if +you'd started to explore space and came upon a civilized race, as we +have?" + +Coburn said formidably, "We'd study them and try to make friends." + +"In that order," said Dillon instantly. "That's what we've tried to do. +We disguised ourselves as you because we wanted to learn how to make +friends before we tried. But what did we find, Coburn? What's your +guess?" + +"You name it!" said Coburn. + +"You Earth people," said Dillon, "are at a turning-point in your +history. Either you solve your problems and keep on climbing, or you'll +blast your civilization down to somewhere near a caveman level and have +to start all over again. You know what I mean. Our two more spectacular +interferences dealt with it." + +"The Iron Curtain," said Coburn. "Yes. But what's that got to do with +you? It's none of your business. That's ours." + + * * * * * + +"But it _is_ ours," said Dillon urgently. "Don't you see, Coburn? +You've a civilization nearly as advanced as ours. If we can make +friends, we can do each other an infinite lot of good. We can complement +each other. We can have a most valuable trade, not only in goods, but in +what you call human values and we call something else. We'd like to +start that trade. + +"But you're desperately close to smashing things. So we've had to rush +things. We did stop that Bulgarian raid. When you proved too sharp to be +fooled, we grew hopeful. Here might be our entering wedge. We hammered +at you. We managed to make your people suspicious that there might be +something in what you said. We proved it. It was rugged for you, but we +had to let you people force us into the open. If we'd marched out shyly +with roses in our hair--what would you have thought?" + +Coburn said doggedly: "I'm still waiting for the terms. What do you +want?" + +The General said something plaintive from his chair. It was to the +effect that Coburn still believed that Earth was in danger of conquest +from space. + +"Look!" said Dillon irritably. "If you people had found the trick of +space travel first, and you'd found us, would you have tried to conquer +us? Considering that we're civilized?" + +Coburn said coldly, "No. Not my particular people. We know you can't +conquer a civilized race. You can exterminate them, or you can break +them down to savagery, but you can't conquer them. You can't conquer +us!" + +Then Dillon said very painstakingly: "But we don't want to conquer you. +Even your friends inside the Iron Curtain know that the only way to +conquer a country is to smash it down to savagery. They've done that +over and over for conquest. But what the devil good would savages be to +us? We want someone to trade with. We can't trade with savages. We want +someone to gain something from. What have savages to offer us? A planet? +Good Heavens, man! We've already found sixty planets for colonies, much +better for us than Earth. Your gravity here is ... well, it's +sickeningly low." + +"What _do_ you want then?" + +"We want to be friends," said Dillon. "We'll gain by it exactly what you +Earth people gained when you traded freely among yourselves, before +blocked currencies and quotas and such nonsense strangled trade. We'll +gain what you gained when you'd stopped having every city a fort and +every village guarded by the castle of its lord. Look, Coburn: we've got +people inside the Iron Curtain. We'll keep them there. You won't be able +to disband your armies, but we can promise you won't have to use +them--because we certainly won't help you chaps fight among yourselves. +We'll give you one of our ships to study and work on. But we won't give +you our arms. You'll have your moon in a year and your whole solar +system in a decade. You'll trade with us from the time you choose, and +you'll be roaming space when you can grasp the trick of it. Man, you +can't refuse. You're too near to certain smashing of your civilization, +and we can help you to avoid it. Think what we're offering." + +Then Coburn said grimly: "And if we don't like the bargain? What if we +refuse?" + +Dillon carefully put the ash from his cigarette into an ashtray. "If you +won't be our friends," he said with some distaste, "we can't gain +anything useful from you. We don't want you as slaves. You'd be no good +to us. For that reason we can't get anything we want from the Iron +Curtain people. They've nothing to offer that we can use. So our +ultimatum is--make friends or we go away and leave you alone. Take it or +leave it!" + +There was a dead, absolute silence. After a long time Coburn said: +"Altruism?" + +Dillon grinned. "Enlightened self-interest. Common sense!" + + * * * * * + +There was a clicking in the ceiling. A metallic voice said: "Mr. +Coburn, the conversation just overheard and recorded has to be +discussed in detail on high diplomatic levels. It will take time for +conferences--decisions--arrangements. Assuming that your guests are +acting in good faith, they have safe conduct from the villa. Their offer +is very attractive, but it will have to be passed on at high +policy-making levels." + +Dillon said pleasantly, to the ceiling: "Yes. And you've got to keep it +from being public, of course, until your space ships can discover us +somewhere. It will have to be handled diplomatically, so your people are +back of a grand offer to make friends when it happens." He added wryly, +"We're very much alike, really. Coburn's very much like us. That's +why--if it's all right with you--you can arrange for him to be our point +of confidential contact. We'll keep in touch with him." + +The ceiling did not reply. Dillon waited, then shrugged. The Greek +general spoke. He said that since they had come so far out from +Salonika, it was too early to leave again. It might be a good idea to +have a party. Some music would be an excellent thing. He said he liked +Earth music very much. + + * * * * * + +A long time later Janice and Coburn were alone in the one room of the +house which was not wired for sound. There were no microphones here. + +Coburn said reluctantly in the darkness: "It sounds sensible all right. +Maybe it's true. But it feels queer to think of it...." + +Janice pressed closer to him and whispered in his ear: "I made friends +with that girl who passed for Helena. I like her. She says we'll be +invited to make a trip to their planet. They can do something about the +gravity. And she says she's really going to be married to the ... person +who was with her...." She hesitated. "She showed me what they really +look like when they're not disguised as us." + +Coburn put his arm around her and smiled gently. "Well? Want to tell +me?" + +Janice caught her breath. "I--I could have cried.... The poor thing--to +look like that. I'm glad I look like I do. For you, darling. For you." + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ April-May 1953. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. 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