The sound of his voice was almost fatal. All work ceased and the horde of little machines turned. They came at him in an invincible wave and Jason Charless turned pale. He fled precipitately. He outdistanced them to Number 1142 and snapped on his radio gear. "Jason Charless to General Lloyd: Emergency One Zero Zero: We are on arctic ice-cap complete with guided missiles and logic computer. Narina Varada is mixed up in somewhere, and the workmanship bears direct evidence of--" The machines reached Charless and bowled him over. They wrecked his radio, captured him and bore him back to the building, unconscious. But his job had been done. His message had been intercepted--as Narina's message some time previously had been--but to the great air fleet that was heading for the arctic ice-cap from one continent was added another massed flight of fighting aircraft from America. * * * * * Jason Charless opened his eyes much later. He looked around. Before him stood a machine that worked on him with digited girders that were gentleness itself, even though they were made of hard metal. "Wh--?" he exploded and tried to sit up. The machine spoke: "Your assumption that we are directed by any human being is mistaken; we are not!" "But--?" "We are compassionate and sympathetic. It is a characteristic--you would call it a virtue--of the higher forms of intellect--of which we are the ultimate at present." "And--?" "You were in need of help. That you became hurt while attempting to harm us is of no importance. We respect the fact that you think unlike us and can be expected to act differently--or to our disinterest if you can. Since you were hurt, we aided you, even though you might be classified as a spy." Jason Charless shrugged cynically. "And I presume that you brought me back to life and will heal me so that I can be properly executed?" "We consider espionage a normal part of strife and therefore consider it no more odious than active fighting." "Well--just who and what are you?" "We are higher forms of life, the coming rulers of the universe you know." "You?" scorned Jason Charless, looking at the machine. "I am not representative of the race," replied the machine. "Then who or what is?" demanded Charless angrily. "You will be told in due time; as soon as you are strong enough to walk." "But--" "Suffice it for the present to tell you that we intend to replace man as the ruling entity of the planet--and possibly someday the universe." "Replace us?" shouted Jason. "Easy, easy. Recall that always the higher forms of life replace the lower as ruling element. Since we are admittedly of a higher intellect, we see only fact." "Who admits this?" asked Charless quietly. "Yourselves?" "You--man--does!" was the answer. "Like hell."