"You can go to hell, King. I want no part of any more of your ideas. I've had it. If I see the creature I'll call Taber and nobody else. I'm going to do exactly what he told me to do. Mark me off your list." Frank Corson strode away. Les King stood watching him. King shrugged. Just another bewildered citizen who thought God lived in Washington. Afraid to spit if some Washington bureaucrat wagged a finger. Well, the hell with Corson. The hell with Taber. The hell with all of them. If Les King stood to make an honest buck, he was going to do his damnedest until somebody passed a law making it illegal. 6 Brent Taber was drawn to Doctor Entman. He found, in the ugly little scientist, a rapport that seemed to exist nowhere else. At the moment, Entman was having a fine, stimulating time dissecting the cadaver of the android. His ugly little eyes were bright. "It's a miracle, my friend! A positive miracle. The thing these people have been able to do!" "People? You've used that word before." Entman waved an impatient hand. "Oh, don't quibble! Why, the creation of an artificial digestive system alone is awesome--not to mention the creation of a synthetic brain." "The brain is what interests me." "I can hardly wait to get into that area. Certain aspects are obvious, though. These creatures must have mental powers far beyond ours--in certain areas, that is." "Tell me more." "That's merely a matter of logic. We know that _homo sapiens_--because of his free choice, so to speak--uses, on an average, not more than a tenth of his mental ability. All right. These people have created, to all intents and purposes, a man. They surely had sense enough to remove the free-choice element. The creature surely has judgment, even cunning, but it is no doubt pointed totally and completely toward the objective of its being." "Whatever the hell that objective is!" Entman was mildly surprised by Taber's exclamation. He held up a warning finger. "Nerves, boy, nerves. You must watch that. As to the objective--I'm sure it's something pointed at our destruction." "What powers were you referring to?" "Hypnotism, I should think. Any of the mental processes through which one human being strives to assert control over another. We are aware of several of these. They may have found others." "You won't be able to define them by cutting up that brain?" "I doubt it. We could know them only by watching one of the creatures in action." Entman sighed. "If we only had other facts." "What facts?" Entman's smile was almost patronizing. "You're tired, aren't you, son? You're not thinking very well." "Goddamn it! Quit treating me like a cretin!" "Temper, temper! Look at it analytically, son, analytically. Suppose we knew who these people are. What distances have they covered in arriving here? What is their method of conveyance?" "The distance? Light years, I would assume. The conveyance? A spaceship, or a projectile along basic lines but farther advanced."