Four men set out to prove their mettle by crossing the bright side of Mercury when it is closest to the sun. A feat which no one has ever done and survived. The odds are against them and they will need all of their expertise and courage if they are to succeed. Even that might not be enough.
Harry Scott is being pursued by some things. They're not human. They're not-men. A door bangs. Footsteps tread heavy. A phone ringing. Can Doctor Webber help poor, delusional Harry?
The rock in space was not quite a sphere, being far too tiny a bit of cosmic debris to have sufficient gravity to round off its ragged corners. One side was rough -- like a ragged mountain top that was broken off at the peak and hurled into space by an all-powerful hand. Slowly the Scout Ship edged closer, braking with forward jets. Was this it, at last -- the missing asteroid?
Zeckler was a con-man, a human con-man. But he had no idea what he was up against when he decided to try to outwit the Altairians, an alien race that believes telling the truth is a weakness. Really he never had a chance.
Jeffrey Meyer had a killing on his mind. It meant nothing to him that his towering Twenty-first Century world was going mad. He shouldered aside the rising tide of narcotics-mania, the gambling fever, the insatiable lust for the irrational. Jeff had his own all-consuming obsession--Paul Conroe must die!After a five-year frenzied chase, Jeff had his victim cornered; he'd driven him into the last hideaway of the world's most desperate men--the sealed vaults of the human-vivisectionists...