Don Thompson

“ Blekeke was pointing the blaster at me.
And his trigger finger was trembling.
He was shaking, very slightly, all over. His red-hued skin had turned a much paler shade.
I don't think I moved a muscle while I waited for him to speak.
"I should killing you," he said. "Right now, I should killing you. Then maybe killing me. Or make boom." He laughed shrilly, almost hysterically. "You very cleverish. Finding one weakener. Tell polices bringing dogs."
"Why, no," I said. "As a matter of fact, I told the dogs to bring the police." ”

“ Two dogs ran beside the auto, barking—the same two dogs that I had shooed before I closed the door.
I formed my thoughts: I know who you are. It's no secret any more. But why? What are you trying to do?
There was no reply.
It could mean one of two things. Either he simply didn't want to answer, or else he wasn't on the machine in person but was playing an impression-tape on my wave-band. I tried again.
You're licked, you know. Already you're licked. Even if my call to Newell was nothing but a telenosis dream—even if no one knows anything about this but me, you're still licked—
No reply. ”

“ How had Grogan learned Maxwell's wave-band so soon?
What was Grogan doing with a telenizer in the first place, and what was he up to? Just personal revenge against me?
How did I know for sure that it was Grogan?
That question startled me. I opened my eyes and sat up straight. In moving so suddenly, my hand knocked over the defense mech and it thudded to the floor. As I bent quickly to pick it up, it started clicking again.
Several things occurred to me at once, then, and my stomach wadded itself into a tight ball and shot up again to press against my heart. My neck and back muscles tightened. ”

“ Whoever the telenosis operator was, I was sure he had followed us to this bar through Maxwell's mind. That's the way telenosis works. Alcohol sets up a complete barrier, and contact is broken entirely; but about all a blow on the head does is immobilize the victim—visions, commands and other impressions can still penetrate, and the operator can still receive whatever sensations his victim may have. ”

“ With telenosis, you can gain control of a person's mind directly, through the brain waves."
"You say 'gain control of a person's mind,'" Newell said. "Do you mean that if you tell someone who is under telenosis to do something, he's got to do it?"
"Not necessarily," I said. "All you can do with telenosis is transmit thoughts to a person—counting visual and auditory sensations as thoughts. If you can convince him that the thoughts you're sending are his thoughts ... then you can make him do almost anything. ”

“ We could hear the dogs howling. Several others had joined in now, but we couldn't see them. They were above us.
"Walk slow to ship," Blekeke instructed, tenseness obvious in his voice. "Casual. Like nothing. I right behind."
Maxwell and I glanced at each other and stepped from the aperture to the gravelly beach and started walking very slowly and casually toward the spaceship.
We had gone about ten feet when we heard, in the short intervals when the dogs weren't howling, the crunching footsteps of Blekeke behind us. They were faltering. ”

“ But there was nothing more nor less than what there had been—the policeman driving through quiet city streets, and the dogs barking.
Then it was just a recording, prepared in advance. My mind was not being followed in person. Not right now.
But that was no help and no assurance. I still didn't dare get out of the car. Or knock the driver over the head and take over the car myself. At ninety miles an hour, and with a visual impression of moving slowly along city streets, that would be a sure form of suicide. ”

“ He smiled modestly. "I also brilliant person. Learn tech part much rapid. Apply own idea, which not so innocent. Fact, very insidious. Telenize right persons, they want Martian then! Vote to let come, yups?"
Maxwell broke in: "Then why didn't you start in on the right people at once? Why not set up your headquarters in Belgrade and telenize the World Council members, instead of playing around with a bunch of hypochondriacs here?"
Blekeke held up his hand. "So fast not so. Must work with what got. Doctor machine very simple, and he telling me not all. Not trusting even me all way. ”

“ Newell said. "Just in case nothing pops on this telenosis deal. And get that defense mech as soon as possible."
"Do I get a real vacation after this is all over?" I asked, knowing what the answer would be.
"Scram," Newell replied. "I'm a busy man. Get going!"
Late afternoon of the next day, my defense mechanism was ready. They had taken a reading of my brain wave with a makeshift electroencaphalograph, and then a couple of electronics boys had tinkered around until they had a gadget that would throw out vibrations on exactly my wave-band. ”

“ So instead of leaving the restaurant on the vehicle level, where we happened to be, and taking an old fashioned sidewalk stroll to the IGN building, Newell insisted on taking the escalator up to the next level and then gliding along on an amband.
That's just the sort of person he is.
When we got back up to his office, he asked, "Isn't there some sort of defense against telenosis? I mean, other than alcohol or insanity?"
I thought for a moment. "Shouldn't be too hard to devise one. All you need is something to set up interference vibrations on the same band as the brain waves you're guarding." ”

“ Suns-Rays Incorporated was one of the chief reasons I was taking my vacation in Palm Beach, Fla., instead of in Sacramento, Calif., my home town. Carson Newell had heard about this crackpot religious group that was having a convention in Palm Beach, and he couldn't see why one of his reporters shouldn't combine business and pleasure.
And maybe that tells you a little more of the sort of person he is.
"It's a complete fraud," I told him. "They worship a glorified sunlamp and take regular treatments. ”

“ When you start seeing visions of a bearded gent with a halo, or having vague but wonderful dreams about some sort of perfect world, feeling intense loyalties to undefined ideals, and experiencing sudden impulses, sometimes cruel and sometimes kind—you know that something's wrong. ”

“ As one of my colleagues commented in a national publication not long ago: "The only place a Martian is a novelty any more is on Mars."
I fully expect the 2080 census to show a Martian population on Earth more than double that of the home planet. So far, the Martians seem to be the only extraterrestrials who've really taken root here. ”

“ Everyone will just assume that we and Blekeke and all the cultists have gone boom, too. That's likely to end the investigation right there. Slow it down plenty, at least."
Blekeke nodded applaudingly. "Yups. Is so."
He pushed the wall-button and we had the spaceship scene again. Men and Martians were loading large crates into the port of the ship. The other bulky boxes were being moved across the beach from the opening in the hill.
"Leaving soon now," Blekeke said as he switched the lights on. "That most of vital equipment. Other going boom. We work awful quickness, yups?" ”

“ If there was ever a case of full and complete correction, I'd say Grogan is it."
Newell tapped his fingertips together, then shrugged impatiently. "Well, hell, I don't think we're getting anywhere on this. I'll turn it over to the C.I.D. and let them worry about it."
"So what happens now?" I asked. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Take a vacation. But hang on to that defense mech. Stay in Palm Beach and contact me pronto if anything happens. Buzz me at least once a day, even if anything doesn't happen."
He started to put down the mike, then lifted it again. "How's the SRI?" ”

“ I've been too busy today getting things organized to keep an eye on you."
"Every twelve hours Langston's defense mech starts clicking," Maxwell said. "Four o'clock this morning and four o'clock this afternoon."
"So he's not giving up on you, anyway," Johnson said. "We know he's still around. What else? Anything new come up?"
I shrugged. "Spent the whole day on a wild goose chase—from my point of view. Trying to dig up information for my feature about Suns-Rays Incorporated." ”

“ I spent the rest of the day at the beach, sprawled out on the hot sand with the defense mech beside me and an army of people—humans and aliens—surrounding me. Only once, at about four o'clock, did the defense mech start going click-click-click. I timed it. It lasted three minutes and then quit.
When I got back to the hotel, at about five, a man fell into step with me as soon as I entered the lobby.
"Name's Maxwell," he told me. "C.I.D. I'm one of your bodyguards for a while."
"How many others do I rate?" I asked.
He was a tall, heavily built young man in his middle twenties. ”

“ Forgetting about the defense mech was enough for one case.
So I ordered breakfast brought up to the room. While I was waiting, and since I was sitting near it anyway, I flicked the TV switch and tuned in on the morning's news. Nothing earthshaking: a factory explosion in St. Louis; political unrest in India; death of a Vegan millionaire; speech in The World Council by Delegate Machavowski of Eurasia in support of the Bagley-Dalton bill to establish a yearly immigration quota of ten thousand from all planets, one thousand from Mars; protest reply by a Martian sociologist at Yale ”

“ And it pointed out that something very like a Martian invasion was taking place right now. One particular article concluded with what I considered an unnecessarily grim warning that unless something were done soon to check the flow of immigrants, Earth would soon be overrun with Martians.
Other articles in the magazine went into the causes and implications of the migration. One of the writers pointed out that Mars is a dying planet. In only a few thousand years, it will be too cold, too dry and too airless to support life. ”

“ How the devil did they get his wave-band so soon?"
"You can worry about that one, too," I told him.
"Okay. Never mind. Where are you now? Never mind that either. Just stay there. Call the nearest police station and have them send someone after you. Get in a nice snug cell and stay put. We'll take care of Grogan and Maxwell. Okay, now. Don't waste any time."
We hung up together. Then I quickly dialed the operator and asked for the nearest sectional police station.
When the face of the desk sergeant flashed on the screen, I told him, "My name is Earl Langston. My life is in immediate danger. ”

“ Finally we agreed to take the treatment, hoping he would get it out of his system. I handed the defense mech to Maxwell and lay down. Couldn't tell a damn bit of difference. Ten minutes of warmth and dozy relaxation, and that's it. You don't feel a bit different after it's over than you did before.
Unless you're a good cultist, and convince yourself by auto-suggestion that all your bodily ills have been miraculously—if temporarily—baked out.
After Maxwell had been given the treatment, I tried again to get Blekeke pinned down to answering some of my questions, but it was no good. ”

“ I told 'em to get as many dogs out here as fast as they possibly could."
Blekeke spoke in a very soft voice. "Cleverly, cleverly. And I giving self way."
"You sure did," I agreed. "There's dogs in every damn vision you dream up, you hate 'em so much. Same way some people have snakes."
Blekeke gestured with the blaster. He had regained some of his color, and he wasn't trembling. "Getting up now. We leaving. Not kill if not necessary."
Maxwell and I stood up. Blekeke backed through the door, motioning for us to follow. ”

“ Langston, but it'll take time. Maybe an hour. Maybe more. And so help me, if this is a joke—"
"It's no joke," I pleaded. "Believe me, it isn't. Please make it as fast as you can. Civilization may be at stake." On that deliberately ominous note, I hung up.
Immediately I began thinking of the things I should have done, the machinery I should have set in motion instead of the one thing I had done. By all means, I ought to have notified the police directly. My notion that telenosis influenced all the police desk sergeants in town was hysterical, baseless. ”

“ It stood erect and walked across the stretch of gravel beach toward the spaceship. Another figure came from the hillock aperture and followed the first.
The thought came from Blekeke: Cultists. Evidence. Prove my success.
Success in what? Why? How?
Blekeke pushed the button on the wall again, and the lights were suddenly on, and the wall bare.
"No harm tell you now," he said. "Gone soon. No matter."
He leaned against the wall and crossed his fragile arms across his huge red chest. He said:
"Mars home dying. You know. Need more somewhere. Earth best, but some Earthmen deciding not want." ”

“ Holding tightly to the defense mech, I darted into the store entrance. I left Maxwell blindly clutching the assailant into whose path I had thrown him. I didn't worry about Maxwell. They could have him. If I got away, they wouldn't dare kill him. And if I didn't get away, they would kill both of us.
The escalator was just inside the door to the right, and I ran down the downward-moving steps, doubling back to the left at the bottom, and out the door on the pedestrian level. I turned left again and ran to the corner, crossed the street and ran three-fourths the length of the block. ”

“ Blekeke seemed happy to reply. "Grogan. Reighardt happened work on Grogan in CI. Also your brain wave number in file, but I getting first on Sun Ray machine."
I had wondered about that, and there was another question that was bothering me.
"When you started that blood dripping in the bathtub," I said, "was that a deliberate attempt to scare me away, or was that part of the standard treatment?"
"Standard," Blekeke replied. "Subject no longer trust own senses after. But recognize 'nosis, so trying frighten you. Work good on others." ”

“ He took the notes from Maxwell and put them in Maxwell's briefcase. He stood up. "I'll have these transcribed and maybe check around a little. I'll meet you here at six-thirty tomorrow night."
"What about—" I started. He cut me off: "Maxwell will stay with you. He's not to let you out of his sight. In case anyone asks, he's your brother-in-law from Sacramento."
I couldn't help laughing—but it was an admiring laugh. "You fellows are nothing if not thorough. Does my real brother-in-law, John Maxwell of Sacramento, know about this?" ”