Miracles to order was a fine way for the paratimers to get mining concessions--but Nature can sometimes pull counter-miracles. And so can men, for that matter....
The man is rare who will give his life for what is merely the lesser of two evils. Merrick's decision was even tougher: to save human beings at the expense of humanity, or vice versa?
Would you like to see all hell break loose? Just make a few holes in nothing at all--push some steel beams through the holes--and then head for the hills. But first, read what happened to some people who really did it.
A scientist, an unemployed man and a cat lady read an advertisement about a secret society from a magazine. They all answer it for various, but different, reasons and get somewhat different return mailings. It turns out that there really IS a real ancient secret society with scientific secrets, and it is drafting new researchers.
Conger agreed to kill a stranger he had never seen. He wasn't concerned about getting the wrong man. He knew what the man looked like. There was no way he could make a mistake about his target's identity -- he had the man's skull under his shoulder.