and bark his heart out at it.”
That man downtown. Linc remembered him as he fought the Eye with the umbrella. Raw courage. That man was probably an average guy, a father with a little girl; and the little girl was probably an average brat most of the time; but at that particular moment she had become priceless, and he had been valiant in his fight to save her. And he had saved her. The Eye had moved off. True, it had gone after bigger game, but the thrusts had made it retreat.
“The simplest solution.” And it was so simple that he had overlooked it!
“I see that trouble-shooting expression on your face,” Wes commented. “Have you got an idea?”
He nodded. “Even simple enough to satisfy Collins. Let’s get Iverson down here and I’ll lay it out.”
Iverson came alone. Collins had gone home, confident that nothing would be settled tonight. Iverson’s face was gaunt with weariness. “I’ve just had a call from the mayor,” he said. “Martial law has been declared. The governor’s here and the National Guard is coming.”
“We can use the soldiers, but why the martial law? People need protection from the Eyes, not from each other,” Wes said.
“Things have changed since you left downtown. The people have run amuck. They’re breaking into stores. Can you imagine it? With those Eyes hanging over them, they’re looting. There isn’t a store left intact on Grand Street. I’ll never understand human beings, if I live to be six hundred.”
“It’s all born of the same thing,” Wes said. “Sanity is gone, so they follow any impulse. There will be mobs, too. Any leader in a storm.”
Iverson said, “You called me down here, Linc. What do you have in mind?”
“The obvious, Doc. We must attack. Fight. Destroy the Eyes before they take more people out to that place in the woods.”
“But how? If it could be done, someone would have started it by now.”
“You haven’t seen those Eyes up close. You don’t understand what they do to a man. You don’t have any inclination to fight—you either want to vomit or run. I’ll bet no one has attempted to fight them except one little man with an umbrella. We were close to them—and I found out one thing for sure. They are not machines. I don’t know what they are, but they’re not machinery. They are eyes. And they’re like human eyes. Therefore, they should be as vulnerable as human eyes.”
“Right,” Wes said. “Nothing’s more vulnerable than an eye. It has no armor—nothing but a blink to protect it.” He was suddenly out of the lethargy and eager over Linc’s idea.
Linc hurried on to convince Iverson. ‘“They’re big—anyone could hit them, with a bullet, a shotgun, an arrow, anything. I don’t know how they live so I can’t say such a wound would kill them, but blinded, they’d be harmless and we could dispose of them.”
Iverson’s head jerked up, his weariness gone. “Yes. Yes.” He smiled slightly as he visualized the battle in his mind.
“The only problem is,” Linc said, “we have to find people who are willing to go up against them. It will take courage—more than most men have except when it’s forced on them. Then who?”
Iverson was quick with the answer. “We’ll wait for the National Guard. They’ll act under orders.”
“I don’t think we can wait. When will they get here?”
“Tomorrow or the next day. The roads into town have to be cleared. If they can’t clear them, they’ll have to come through the fields. The highways are just masses of wrecked cars.”
“Then we can’t wait. Every hour that we delay means more people given up to that black thing in the woods. I couldn’t sit here with a workable plan knowing they were being led away.”
Iverson bobbed his head. “You’re right—as usual.”
“Then where do we get the men?” Wes asked. “Police?”
“That’s a good possibility. Police,” Linc answered, “and maybe some of the R.O.T.C. students from the campus. They know how to handle weapons. Then, of course, there are us.”
“I think we can probably pick our own ground,” Wes said. “The Eyes will undoubtedly come anyplace they see a crowd.”
Iverson stood up. “You two go ahead and plan a strategy. I’ll make the calls to the police and students. I think I carry enough weight around here to get them. In fact, I know I do—I’ve got the whole reactor behind me for blackmail.”
He left, and Linc pulled out a piece of paper and bent with Wes over the desk, setting up a plan of action. Tomorrow morning, with the first light, he would win back his beautiful time of the year by wrenching it violently away from the ungodly things that had stolen it.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dawn had climbed two hours up the sky, and the sun slanted through the east windows of the lab. The assembled men were restless; forty of them, shifting about, fingering their rifles and shotguns with eager hands. Linc waited close to Wes for Iverson to join them and give the final word. The excitement inside him was a bubbling, a churning in his stomach.
This morning would be his. A real fight, a hand-to-hand battle—this kind of action he knew backward and forward, and the feel and taste of it, the pending wildness of it, were spurs that made his feet want to stride outside on their own will, made his voice want to come up shouting.
“I think we’re going to do it,” Wes’s voice was thick with enthusiasm. “Look at those men, Linc. They’re like tigers, every one of them. I think we’re going to do it this morning.”
Linc glanced over the forty men again, a frown edging between his blue eyes. “Some of those kids are so blatantly kids. Nineteen, twenty. I wish Iverson could have enlisted some seniors, at least. I worry about them.”
“Don’t,” Wes said. “They’re eager. They’ll be your best men this morning. Just wait and see.”
Iverson’s entrance interrupted them. “Are we all set?”
“All set,” Linc nodded.
“Good. Then we’ll move out in ten minutes. You men will go out in a group, so that we can lure the Eyes simply by our show of numbers. The police first, and then the students.” He lowered his voice and addressed Linc directly. “We’ll follow behind, at a safe distance.”
Linc glanced up quickly to meet the old man’s gaze. “What do you mean, safe distance? You’ve got this all wrong, Doc, if you think I’m here to be an observer, or some back-line general. I’ve brought my gun, and I’m going to fight.”
Iverson shook his head. “You’re not going to fire one shot. The lab needs you; if this doesn’t work, then who knows, maybe the whole town needs you for another try. However it is, you’re not going to join the fight. No one from the Lab is to engage in combat. And for once, I won’t stomach any arguments. Argue, and you’re out altogether. Understood?”
Iverson stepped away before Linc could protest. He faced the men and began to outline the plan.
“I
