Three men guarded him as he lay bound in one corner of the Colony Administration Building. Lloyd Kramer, Abel Lester and Mark Cameron, Lois' father. They had been facing him wordlessly for almost 15 minutes. None of them would answer his questions--not even when he asked Cameron whether Lois was all right. Suddenly the door opened and a tall, ascetically thin man entered. Reese knew instantly from the cold set of his features and the fact that his eyes, unlike those of the zombies, burnt with a hard flame of intelligence, that this was Dr. Tersen. "You can go," Tersen said. The three guards nodded and left. Reese noticed that a tiny band of bright metal encircled Tersen's forehead. The scientist looked down at Reese. "Are you a member of this colony?" he asked. "Why should I tell you?" "I repeat, James Reese: are you a member of this colony?" "Yes," Reese said. "I've been away on a hunting trip the past month. Who the devil are you?" "My name is John Tersen, formerly of Earth. You may have heard of me." "I remember some sort of trial," Reese said. "You were accused of illegal experiments of some kind. You were banished from Earth." "Ah, yes. Precisely." A film of pain crossed Tersen's lean features. "Exiled from my native world. That was six years ago--six years in which I've worked alone, on an uncharted planetoid, preparing. Colony Eight of _Damballa_ represents my first laboratory experiment. After that, the other nine colonies--and then, Earth. I'll have repaid them for what they did to me!" "Do you have this whole colony in your control?" Reese asked. "Yes. All but you--and you'll soon be under the beam too." _That means Lois too_, Reese thought. _What an idiot I was to go away and leave her here alone!_ And then he realized it was lucky he had done so. If he had stayed here, he'd probably be a zombie like all the rest. At least this way he was a free agent and it was still possible to defeat Tersen--for the time being. Something flashed brightly in Tersen's hand. A thin metallic bracelet--of the same metal as the band around the scientist's forehead. "This is for you," Tersen said. "Since I can't readjust the generator without losing control of all the others I've prepared a special trinket for you. Let me slip it on you, Reese." Tersen reached for Reese's wrist. Reese twisted his body away. "Don't be coy," Tersen said, smiling bleakly. He slapped Reese and seized his wrist. Despite Reese's desperate writhing Tersen managed to force the bracelet over the man's wrist and clamp it shut. "There," Tersen said. "Now the whole village is under control." Reese was puzzled. He felt no different; evidently something had gone wrong. But he did not intend to let Tersen know that. "We'll march on Colony Seven tonight," Tersen mused aloud. "Everything's ready to begin the conquest."