Chapter 11

Julia awakened with a start very early Saturday morning. It was not yet three o’clock. Washington lay silent beyond her window. The dark, chill air of the room was motionless.

I forgot to seal Walt’s mind off from Calvin’s! she thought in blind terror.

She fumbled her bed clothes off and swung her feet to the carpet.

But once she was standing, the effects of the nightmare began to dissipate. She was surprised to find herself trembling. She laughed nervously. She had dreamed that Walt was crossing the carpet toward her bed, walking in silent invisibility. He had raised a knife to plunge it into her heart--had raised a great rock to smash her skull--had aimed a pistol at her brain--while she lay in chill terror, waiting, helpless.

The cold made goose pimples on her naked skin. But her own laugh reassured her.

A second of concentration and blood flowed skin-ward, warming her.

She found the light switch.

When the light came on, she heard the guard outside the door shuffle restlessly.

She began to dress. She needed no more sleep. She was anxious to get back on the job--trying to stop the invasion; although now, in spite of her mutant powers, now that the course of action was outlined, she seemed more in the way than of assistance.

Now why, she thought, would it suddenly seem so important that I should seal off Walt’s mind? Yesterday, when he was so tired, I almost gave him back his mutant powers. I do trust him, don’t I? Of course. After all the help he’s given us, I know--there’s not the tiniest doubt, really--that he’s completely on our side.

Now why--?

Seal ... off ... mind...

She tried to ignore the thought. It isn’t that important, she argued with herself.

Seal ... off ... mind...

Whoa! she thought.

Seal off minds!

Minds.

Harmonics ... powerful signal ... transmit ... blanket...

Pulling her blouse hastily over her head, she realized that it might be remotely possible!

As she reached for the phone, she tried to see the mathematics involved. I’ll have to consult Dr. Norvel, she thought.

She dialed. Her hand began to tremble with eagerness.

The phone rang in her ear. Once. Twice. Three times.

“Hello?”

“Hello, this is Julia. Let me speak to the general. Hurry!”

Whoever was on the other end of the line moved quickly. Julia could hear a phone ringing in the receiver.

“Yes?” the general said, sleepy-voiced.

“Julia, General.”

“Yes?”

“I think I’ve got something for you.”

“Yes?”

“If we can transmit a powerful enough signal, we might be able to create harmonics that would interfere throughout the possible displacement area. Interfere with the frequency that closes our bridges, I mean. It’s the same principle as concussion affecting the displacement area.”

“Wait a minute. Okay, go on. I’m recording this, now.”

“If our television and radio transmitters will handle the signal, we can blanket the whole planet with interference. Any mutant that hits it will automatically be deprived of his mutant powers.”

“What... ?”

“Look. We can make the whole first wave human normals. The Army can round them up and keep them unconscious while we adjust our interference to meet the second wave.”

“I see, vaguely. What do you need?”

“Dr. Norvel.”

“I’ll phone her.”

“A laboratory. An electronics laboratory.”

“I’ll get it.”

“Enough time.”

“All I can do on that score is hurry as fast as I can. As soon as I get your laboratory, I’ll send a car around for you.”

“Right.”

“I’ve got calls to make, then. You give me the details later.”

“Goodby.”

Julia hung up.

She felt elation. She went to the window and breathed deeply. The air was exciting.

Two hours later, she was in a staff car speeding toward an experimental laboratory on the outskirts of town.

She was hustled inside the building by a sergeant and a colonel; gray, cloudy dawn hovered in the east.

Dr. Norvel was already waiting.

“Let’s go to work,” the doctor said.

“Right.”

“What do you propose? The general said something about interfering with the frequency controlling your mind. How? We can’t even detect it.”

“We don’t need to. We generate a signal, vary the frequency until I lose my mutant powers--and that’s it! We generate as strong a signal as we can. Then we have every transmitter in the country put on a direct line to us. When the radar spots the first saucer, we let go with every kilowatt of power we’ve got.”

“Good, good, good,” Dr. Norvel said excitedly. “See if you can find some good coffee, you there, with the bird on your shoulder.”

The colonel said, “Yes, ma’m.”

“I’ll try to get some electronics men in to help,” Dr. Norvel said. “We may need plenty of help.”

“Is there a technical library around?” Julia asked. “I better read up on electronics.”

“There’s one in there,” the puzzled night watchman said.

“I want you to get me somebody from the Army that can get me equipment, and fast,” Dr. Norvel told the sergeant. He was standing helplessly by the door.

“I--”

“Hurry up, damn it!”

The sergeant shrugged in resignation. “All right, but they won’t like it. I’m the one you should have sent for the coffee.”

After, the sergeant was gone, the colonel came back.

By noon, the laboratory was alive with activity.

By six o’clock, the signal generator was beginning to grow.

Julia supervised the crew laying cable. The cable would be connected to the nearest radio transmitter.

“Your transmitter will handle our signal?” Julia asked.

“You give it to us, and we’ll tell you.”

A general interrupted Julia. “I’m from General Tibbets. How’s it going?”

“Can’t tell.”

“We’re trying to scatter paratroops--detachments of them. All over. How long do we have?”

“It’s up to them,” Julia said. “I don’t know when we’ll be finished here.”

“Our men should be stationed by morning.”

“I hope we’re through that early.”

“You disarm these damned mutants, and we’ll capture them.”

“Hope to.”

In the yard, a crew was unloading a new power supply.

“Knock a hole in the east wall and take it inside!” a harried officer bawled hoarsely.

“Some ass of a newspaper man did a report on unusual activity in the Pentagon and around Washington,” Dr. Norvel said. “He hinted it had something to do with the flying saucer reports of twenty some years ago.”

“How in hell did it leak?”

“ ... the Pentagon’s issuing a denial.”

By midnight, Julia was superintending the construction of a second signal generator. Work on the first one was temporarily stalled; the technicians were waiting for a special transformer.

Dr. Norvel was waving an inked-in schematic diagram before the face of a gray haired man in an apron. “No, no, no,” she said. “It’s got to be this way to set up the right harmonics.”

A major came up and tugged apologetically at Julia’s arm. “Are you in charge here?”

“I’m sure I don’t know.”

“Well, if you are--please, Miss, my men have to rest. Can I let them go now?”

“We’re not quitting ‘til we finish--I’m sure of that.”

The major went away, looking for someone else in authority.

Walt, his mutant bridge restored, was inspecting the second signal generator with interest. With it, the technicians would determine the signal that interfered with his frequency. They would set it to throb out that signal.

One section of the transmitter cable ran to each signal generator. A sergeant had just finished installing a switch that would control the signal being fed into the output line. After the first mutant wave had been captured, the switch would be thrown to the left. The signal covering Walt’s powers would then be transmitted to the same network of radio and television stations that had carried the one covering Julia’s; and the second wave would be reduced to earth normal.

It was dawn before the first signal generator began operation. It was Sunday.

Julia sat at a desk, sipping coffee, holding a book suspended in front of her, six inches from the desk top. The last twenty-four hours had left a strain on her face. When the book fell, her mutant powers would be gone.

Smoking cigarette after cigarette, Dr. Norvel watched. After nearly fifteen minutes, she pleaded, “Drop, damn you, drop!”

Work on the second generator continued. It was at least half a day away from completion. There was a continual mutter of conversation about it in the background.

An hour later, sweat covered Julia’s face. The book was still suspended.

“Put in the next frequency range unit,” Dr. Norvel said wearily.

A general bustled in. “General Tibbets wants to know how we’re doing here.”

Silence greeted him.

“The paratroopers are ready,” the general said defensively.

Lycan bustled about, making last minute preparations in the larger compartment. His faceted eyes gleamed with excitement. Now and then he spoke to a mutant.

“You ready, Fred?”

“Yes, Lycan. I’m nervous, but I’m ready.”

“It’s natural,” Lycan reassured.

The mutants shuffled their feet and cleared their throats and wiped their palms. They smiled uneasily.

“Form a line!” the Elder called. “We’re ready to load you.”

The mutants complied. They spoke in hushed undertones. Their focus rods, like tall staffs, bristled unevenly above their heads.

Lycan led them up the ladder to the second level. Led them down the long corridor. Led them past gleaming, whirring machinery.

In the huge, open launching area, the other aliens made last minute adjustments on the saucer ships.

The Elder sent the first group forward. They boarded their ships. The aliens withdrew.

A section of the wall unfolded. Air hissed away, expelling the saucer ships out into space. The mutants worked their simple controls. The saucer ships floated together as if for protection. On signal, they plunged earthward.

The section of the wall folded back. Air entered. The aliens rushed out and unloaded more saucer ships from the storage compartments.

Mutants entered and boarded. The aliens withdrew. The wall unfolded. A second group of saucer ships plunged earthward. The wall folded back. It was as if the space station had opened its mouth; as if the mouth had breathed flying saucers.

Down they came.

Early Sunday sunlight burst across the eastern part of the North American continent.

Nearly a thousand saucers, in five compact groups, one group for each continent, slipped one after another into the atmosphere.

There was no opposition. No planes rose to challenge them. They braked and flattened and skimmed toward their assigned landing sites.

And they touched down: in the hearts of industrial cities; in farm communities; at military installations. They streaked up from the horizon; they hovered; they settled gently to earth.

A few surprised early risers saw them flashing across the sky; saw them land; saw the mutants, armed with focus rods, step out and adjust themselves to the openness all around them. Hate was stamped plainly on the mutants’ faces. They took their time, adjusting their focus rods for death and destruction. The few earthlings who saw them waited or fled or advanced with curiosity.

At the Infantry School at Ft. Benning, Georgia, a saucer landed in the third cortile. The three jump towers to the left were like bony fingers pointing accusingly at the sky.

The troops, alerted, uncertain as to what they were waiting for, were lounging in the barracks. Their orders had been changed several times in the last few days. An orderly coming from “C” Company rec hall saw the saucer first. He watched the female mutant get out, look around, shudder and shrink upon herself beneath the horrible, distant sky.

He went to report it to the O.D.

The female began to adjust her focus rod.

At the airport across the Chattahoochee River in Alabama, five battalions of paratroops were waiting assignment. They had been briefed on their jobs less than twelve hours ago. Cargo planes warmed up off the runways, poised for service.

The hastily organized message center was the focus of frantic activity. A teletype chattered. Telephones from radar stations rang and were answered. A harried clerk slipped a scribbled slip to a major waiting beside the desk. He read it, whistled, and trotted toward the main body of troops.

“There’s one over in the third cortile.”

A nervous captain stood up and field-stripped his cigarette. “Want me to jump--or take a truck?”

“Jump,” the major said. “There’s planes.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Load the third platoon,” the captain called.

A transport, under instruction from a colonel, wheeled onto the runway.

The colonel came running up. “Load that platoon for Birmingham, Captain,” he ordered. “Radar traced one down there.”

“There’s one in the third cortile on the Main Post,” the major said.

“Get it with the next plane,” the colonel said.

The major trotted off to get a plane.

The captain told a lieutenant: “Take the fourth platoon, Hawkins.”

The lieutenant saluted self-consciously. He crossed to his assignment and began to check his men’s equipment. The men pulled nervously at their parachute harnesses and puffed at their cigarettes. “Don’t forget to hook up in the plane.”

Several men were waving out the next transport. It lumbered forward as the other one cleared the field and circled west toward Birmingham.

“I’d feel better with a rifle,” one of the troops told the lieutenant.

“What the hell,” one of the other men said, “You’d have to clean it when you got back!”

“Let’s go!” the lieutenant said.

The platoon moved into the waiting transport.

A medical aide trailed up at the rear, carrying his hypodermic kit. Once the platoon overcame the mutant, he would inject enough morphine to knock the mutant out for at least twenty-four hours.

The female in the third cortile saw the lumbering transport, saw the silken blossoms swaying down from it. It amused her to wait. She was in no hurry. She was going to take it slowly at first: savoring the first few: before killing became a mere impersonal, mechanical operation.

The soldiers were unarmed. They landed, divested themselves of their chutes, trotted toward an assembly area designated by the lieutenant. When they were grouped, they started to close in on her--advancing nervously.

She lifted the focus rod. So this was the best they could send against her! She concentrated. She would turn them into flaming torches. Then she would demolish all the buildings within range. But first the screaming human torches...

Nothing happened. The focus rod was as useless as wood.

Her mind was cramped. It was no longer as alert as it had been in the space station. She was now adjusted to the openness around her. She realized something was badly wrong.

The soldiers, smiling now, were almost upon her.

She dropped the focus rod and started to run.

In Washington, Walt and Julia waited by the signal generator that was in operation, broadcasting its interference across the whole planet. Julia, bereft of her mutant powers, sat limply in a folding chair; her body was a stupor of exhaustion; she watched the activity around her with listless, heavy-lidded eyes.

General Tibbets paced nervously before the second generator.

Dr. Norvel hovered at the control panel.

“It’s finished,” a technician said, straightening stiffly from the electrical wiring at the rear of the panel.

The general stopped pacing. “Walt! Are you ready?”

“Okay,” Dr. Norvel said. “Turn it on.”

“I’m ready,” Walt said.

A power supply moaned.

“Here we go, Walt.”

A technician ran a hand through his hair. “Keep your fingers crossed.”

Walt, seated beside Julia, concentrated on the book. It floated above the desk.

Dr. Norvel moved the dial. Her face was pale and drawn.

The general coughed nervously.

The control light of the generator winked out.

Everyone held his breath.

The air was filled with the sharp, acrid odor of burning wiring.

“Unplug it!” Dr. Norvel cried.

A technician cut off the power.

“Oh, damn, damn, damn,” Dr. Norvel said tonelessly.

The generator still smoked. A technician was trying to see into the wiring behind the panel. “Something shorted,” he said unnecessarily, “It’s a mess.”

“We’ve got to get it fixed,” Julia said dully.

Dr. Norvel collapsed, crying quietly. “It’s too late; it’s too late; it’s too late.”

“We worked too fast--”

Walt stood up. The book fell with a sharp, explosive sound now that he had stopped concentrating on it. “We’ll have to find my frequency on the other generator.”

“Not until we get all the first wave of mutants under control,” Julia said. “We can’t shut off their interference before.”

“Suppose it takes as long on your frequency as it did on Julia’s?” Dr. Norvel said. “ ... I don’t think we’ve got that kind of time. As soon as they realize something’s wrong...”

“What else can we do?” Walt asked.

Nobody answered.