“I’m Walt Johnson.”
“Where are you going, Walt Johnson?”
“This . . . down this way.” The emotions were almost out of control with excitement. His thoughts were becoming powerful and diffuse.
You let her alone! Julia ordered.
It was like a slap. He quickly dampened his thoughts. Hatred returned.
The driver of the car chewed gum reflectively, watching him. She twitched nervously closer.
She saw his eyes. She stopped chewing gum. Perhaps she saw the hatred. She was trembling, suddenly. “You . . . .” She drew the car into a niche again. “You better get out here.”
Walt was angry. No killing, no killing, he told himself. He controlled his hands. He forced himself to open the door and get out.
“Somebody’ll give you a ride,” the girl said.
The car moved away, gaining speed quickly . . . .
An orchard lay behind him. Cars passed more slowly now that the desert was to the east.
Walt began to walk.
He thought: Forential told us a while ago there was a destructive war in progress. It doesn’t seem like there’s a war. I haven’t seen any signs of it. It’s peaceful. I wonder what he meant?
Within a few minutes, a car drew along side of him.
“I’m Walt Johnson. I’m going down the road.”
“Get in, then.”
Walt got in.
Hello, Julia, he thought. I want to see you, Julia.
Chapter VI
In the space station, Forential sat in his cubicle in mental conference with the other aliens. Behind their flow of thoughts was the unreferred-to but ever-present fear for their own lives. Cowardice was taken for granted; it was so deeply a part of their own culture (if it wasn’t somehow a racial characteristic) that it did not need to be acknowledged.
The aliens always let other races fight their wars of conquest.
Forential knew that his own personal existence might well hinge on the outcome of the next few hours. None of the aliens knew how much knowledge Julia possessed. Unlike the other mutants, she had not been kept in ignorance of the basic laws of nature. How dangerous she might be, they could only guess. Was she capable of attacking them?
Forential was physically ill; he wanted to flee. If he had had a ship capable of traveling interstellar distances, he would have embarked without delay. But the huge interstellar ship of his race would not be back for another thirty years. There was no escape from the space station; there was no place to go.
And if the earthlings were not destroyed, if the invasion of Earth failed, retaliation from the planet would not be long coming. Once the Earth located the space station (and Earth would, once Earth realized its existence) even human normals would be able to destroy it—one rocket with an atomic war head would do—long before the interstellar ship returned.
Walt could not fail; the invasion could not fail.
**Let’s try to make peace with the earthings,** one of the aliens thought. **It’s better than . . . than exposing ourselves to physical violence!**
**That would be suicide: once they realized what we had been planning to do to them.**
**I don’t trust them.**
**Let Forential send down all his charges to kill the female!**
**Don’t be hysterical!** the Elder thought hysterically.
Forential knew that to send down his charges first might alert Earth to the danger of invasion: twenty-seven saucer-ships would not go unnoticed. But even if they would, even if Earth remained unaware, such a course would completely disrupt the plan of conquest.
**She hasn’t realized the menace yet,** the Elder thought. **Walt will kill her. Walt will kill her, won’t he, Forential?**
**Yes.** If only one of us went to make sure, Forential thought. To help him . . . no . . . . None of us would risk it. It’s too dangerous.
The aliens did not have any equipment to make their single person ships invisible. It took bulky distortion machinery; the single person ships were too large to cover with mental shielding.
Twenty years ago, yes (Forential thought) we could have risked it. But now the radar screens around all the major countries are too tight. We could not, like Walt, destroy our ship. We would need it to return in.
**We must give him all the help we can,** Forential thought.
**We must.**
**We must.**
**Lycan,** the Elder thought. **Can you cut the power of your charges?**
**An extended period might have a bad psychological effect . . . .**
**They won’t realize the implication—that they’re not Lyrians, that we control them—until too late.**
**If we could give Walt twelve hours,** Forential thought. ** . . . we’ve got to give him every chance!**
**When do you think he’ll be close to her?** the Elder asked.
Forential consulted his maps. He calculated rapidly.
**If he travels fast—if he has luck—by another five hours.**
**Lycan,** the Elder instructed, **continue with training until then. We’ll cut off the greater transmitter five hours from now. Twelve hours should give Walt more than enough time to kill her. It will be mutant trying to kill an earth-normal. He can’t fail!**
**He can’t fail,** they echoed nervously.
**Will twelve hours be enough?**
**If he does, somehow, fail, we can’t risk delaying the invasion more than that.**
**I will see that it doesn’t delay the invasion,** Lycan promised. **I’ll train them right through normalcy.**
*
Walt had arrived in Hollywood. Wait for me there. Julia (dressing carefully) projected to him. I’ll be right over to get you.
She finished combing her hair. She went to her handbag, snapped it closed decisively, and slipped it over her arm. She was smiling.
On her way out of the room, she picked up the book on brain surgery that she hadn’t yet had the chance to read. She skimmed through it in the taxi on the way to pick Walt up.
She paused a fraction of a second over one of
