Doomsday Eve by ROBERT MOORE WILLIAMS ACE BOOKS A Division of A. A. Wyn, Inc. 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y. DOOMSDAY EVE Copyright 1957, by A. A. Wyn, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printed in U. S. A. [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] * * * * * SPLIT-SECOND RACE WITH WORLD'S END! In the midst of the war--that terrible conflict that threatened humanity's total destruction--the "new people" suddenly appeared. Quietly performing incredible deeds, vanishing at will, they were an enigma to both sides. Kurt Zen was an American intelligence officer among the many sent to root them out. He found them. Taken captive in their hidden lair, he waited as the enemy prepared to launch the super missile, the bomb to end all bombs--and all life. If only he could find the source of the new people's power, Kurt alone might be able to prevent obliteration of the Earth.... * * * * * CAST OF CHARACTERS KURT ZEN His loyalty was greater than his love. NEDRA She might be a "new" person--but she had old emotions. CUSO He pitted Oriental cunning against Western ingenuity. SAM WEST He wouldn't use his strange powers to help his friends or hurt his enemies. JAL JONNER He was either a legend or a lunatic. GRANT His rescue was a miracle--though they called it a myth. I The legends clustering around the new people began before the war, while the man who started the group, old Jal Jonnor, was alive, but they received their greatest circulation during the conflict. If the war is long and the fighting is bitter, with neither side able to achieve victory or even a substantial advantage, soldiers eventually begin to tell strange stories of sights seen when death is near, of miraculous deliveries from destruction, of impossible ships seen above the Earth, and even of non-human allies fighting on their side. Psychologists, given to believing only what they can see, feel, hear, or measure, generally have credited these stories to hallucinations resulting from long-sustained stress, or, in the case of the non-human allies, to plain, wishful thinking rising out of a deep feeling of insecurity. What psychologist was ever willing to believe that an angel suddenly took over the controls of a falling fighting plane, righting the ship and bringing it down to Earth in a crash landing that enabled the wounded pilot to crawl away, then curing the wound the pilot had sustained?