Until the extraordinary affair at Sidmouth, the peculiar species Haploteuthis ferox was known to science only generically, on the strength of a half-digested tentacle obtained near the Azores, and a decaying body pecked by birds and nibbled by fish, found early in 1896 by Mr. Jennings, near Land's End.
Sometimes an organizational setup grows, sets its ways, and becomes so traditional that once-necessary jobs become unnecessary. But it is sometimes quite hard to spot just which man is the unnecessary one. In this case. not the one you think!
FBI Agent Kenneth Malone faces his toughest challenge yet, discovering why the government operates so inefficiently. Is it a plot by some mastermind operating out of the Kremlin? Or is it an even deeper conspiracy whose goal is to sow confusion and chaos throughout the world. Will Malone be able to find the cause of the mysterious psychic static causing the disruption? What will he find when he faces the Supermind?
The customs officer isn't even human, so it feels like just another R&R, another halting conversation carried on in ugly trade-speak, another bewilderment of queues and luggage carousels. Outside: another spaceport, surrounded by the variegated hostels for the variegated tourists, and bipeds are in bare majority. The thing he can't think of it is, is a homecoming.