"Johnny!" he called suddenly, something like an icy lump hardening in his chest. How long had it been since Johnny had left? Running, Alcala went down the long half-lit stairs, out the back door and along the dark path toward the place where Johnny's 'copter had been parked. A light shone through the leaves. It was still there. "Johnny!" John Osborne Drake was putting his suitcase into the rear of the 'copter. "What is it, Ric?" he asked in a friendly voice without turning. _It would be impossible to ask him to change his mind._ Alcala found a rock, raised it behind Syndrome Johnny's back. "I know I'm being anti-social," he said regretfully, and then threw the rock away. His fist was enough like stone to crush a skull. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Syndrome Johnny, by Charles Dye