Ray yielded to the only one with a plan and told Carol they would come.

  “It’s probably revenge,” Will offered. “Maybe we should take a gun and finish it now.”

  “No!” Mac exploded. “This man is not going to be trapped by overt action. He has to be tricked, not attacked. If only I could go along — You say he’s more than willing to talk about himself and answer questions. I’ve got questions to be asked.”

  “Come, then,” Ray said. “There won’t be any objection. But you’ll be taking the chance of becoming a robot.”

  “I’m not afraid of him,” Mac stated steadfastly. “You’ve got yourself a date.”

  As they waited on the steps of Kiel’s house, Mac whispered: “Now remember, no antagonizing, no insinuating. You said he thinks he’s a god; well, push his pedestal up a little higher until the view down gets hazy.”

  The addition of an extra guest caused no disturbance except to make Carol nervous. She looked rather harassed from the wild night before. Kiel shook hands cordially, not even attempting to hide his amusement.

  Ray sat down with Chips and stroked the striped head. The cat was getting thin from his constant watching and Ray wished he could take him out of the house.

  The three men waited, wondering how long Kiel would keep up the polite chatter before he swung to a mention of their attempt against him. But he was enjoying his position and basking in Carol’s attention. If Ray had harbored any doubts about Carol’s emotions, they were gone now; she hovered about her husband, making a fool of herself, Ray thought.

  Ray understood the excitement Mac was feeling. Mac was seeing Kiel first for the thing he was — a man from the stars — and wondering what strange things he could relate if only he would.

  If was when they were sipping their second cocktail that Kiel opened up. “That was quite a show you put on last night, Ray. ‘Storming the fort,’ I believe is the correct title for it.”

  “We all know it was a stupid move, so don’t point it up,” Ray muttered.

  “It was the natural thing,” Kiel admitted. “But who were your confederates?”

  “Don’t try to tell me you don’t know,” Ray scoffed.

  “I was one,” Mac spoke up, meeting Kiel’s sizing eyes with the measure of his own. “I met one of the dogs, unfortunately.”

  “They made a successful delaying action. But you surprise me, Dr. McGregor. I wouldn’t have expected a man of your age and intelligence to engage in commando tactics.”

  “That’s what I told them,” Mac laughed. “What surprised me, if I’m allowed a surprise, is how you knew we were there at all. Do you read minds?”

  Kiel looked at him sideways. “No, I don’t read minds. I read intentions, if anything.”

  “Intentions?”

  “Pretences, emotions, motives. I can sense the changes in your brain pattern, the heightening or tightening when you are excited — the changes which occur with your emotions. You might say I’m a walking electroencephalograph.”

  “Then you can’t tell what I’m thinking right now?” Mac let amazement flow into his tone.

  “I’m not a telepath,” Kiel admitted. “But from this moment on, I will be able to identify you out of a hundred people. You have a distinct pattern which separates you from the rest. You might say you have just now met me.”

  Mac’s eyes glinted with interest. “And when you take control of a man, what happens then? Do you project yourself into him?”

  “In a way. I capture his brain pattern and turn it back, altering it where I choose. I take out and put in. I force my pattern into his mold and run his body for him. I can take into myself whatever a man possesses in his mind and then it becomes mine. Unfortunately, this can’t be done without violence. I could reach out and take one small particle of information from you and all you would feel would be a headache. But if I wanted something bigger, something deeper, you would be destroyed. Don’t ask me why skulls split open — that I don’t know, myself, except that the brain swells to a tremendous size and pressure before it shrinks and that probably cracks the shell.”

  “It’s amazing,” Mac sighed. “When put in unemotional terms, it’s not quite so horrible, is it?”

  The maid announced dinner. Kiel went ahead with Carol and Ray fell back a moment to demand an explanation of Mac’s actions. Mac waved him aside impatiently, “Don’t spoil it now. Just listen and remember what you hear. The man’s an egotist — he’ll deliver himself into our hands because of it.”

  Mac continued at the table. “What about animals then? Do they actually have enough brain power to be controlled?”

  “Of course. I tried to explain this to Ray, but he wouldn’t listen. I can control any animal.”

  “Except cats,” Ray interjected.

  “Yes, except cats.”

  “Why is that?” Mac acted the role of a curious codger.

  “Cats have a one-track mind, to put it simply. They decide something and they’re too stubborn to change. Chips, in there, has lived with me all this time and still refuses to submit. He’s proud and vain — if you’ll excuse the human adjectives — and he won’t give in to me. He quite simply hates me.”

  “Are cats abler than people then?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Kiel hurried to explain. “It’s just that people, with their complexities, can be lured, cajoled, and tricked. I can be upon them before they’re aware of danger. Chips was on the alert the moment I came within his range, and he doesn’t relax as long as I stay in range. He transmits a constant stream of one strong emotion, and I can’t get through to him. It’s like jamming on radio waves. He disrupts my pattern.”

  “So that’s the reason,” Carol gasped. Kiel shot her a fast warning glance and she looked down at her plate.

  “Chips and I wage a battle every now and then,” he continued. “Mostly, I leave him alone. But I’m afraid Carol’s going to have to give him up. You noticed how thin he’s getting. I don’t like to see that. I admire his courage.”

  Mac said meekly, “You know, Mr. Kiel, it’s a strange sensation sitting here beside you and knowing that I am completely helpless — that at any moment I might not be myself any more. It must give you a feeling of great power.”

  “I have great power,” Kiel answered simply. “I don’t think about it one way or another.”

  “In a way, it might be a pleasant thing,” Mac mused, “just to live and enjoy living and let someone else do the deciding. It might not be so bad for humanity, after all.”

  “Mac!” Ray exploded. “That’s —”

  “No, no,” Mac said, cutting him off. “After all, if it’s going to come, we may as well think of the good side of it.”

  Kiel’s eyes were suddenly wary, fastened on him like suction cups. “You don’t mean a word of that, McGregor. What are you

  trying to do?”

  “Frankly, I’m trying to protect myself, to cross myself off your list as an adversary. You can’t blame me for that.”

  “But I haven’t threatened you.” Kiel appeared perplexed. “In fact, I rather admire you. You remind me a good deal of Carol’s father; and since you were such friends, I have a good estimation of you already, through his eyes.”

  “It’s eerie,” Mac said and shivered. “If you remove your own personality and the others which succeeded Grayson, would you then be Grayson? And I could talk to you as Grayson?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s like resurrecting the dead.”

  “I owe much to him,” Kiel said. “He opened the world for me. Up until then, I was stifled by superstitions and feeble minds. I was shut inside. But his mind was closer to my own; and with it, I burst out.” He cast his attention down the table to Ray and Will. “As much as I enjoy talking to you, it’s stirring up too much emotion in your friends. You think I’ve planned some sort of revenge, don’t you, Ray?”

  Ray didn’t answer but violently sawed off a piece of meat with his knife.

  “Don’t bait him, Peter,” Carol asked. “You invited them here, don’t start something. Please.”

  Kiel raised his wine glass in a mock toast to her and said nothing more.

  The talk dragged on until they put a voluntary end to it. Kiel showed them out; and as they started away, called: “Don’t be discouraged. The battle isn’t too uneven, actually. I’ve given myself a handicap. You should be grateful.” The door closed on the beginning of his low laugh.

  Ray didn’t know if he was angry with Mac or no, and Will echoed his thoughts. “You’ve just about taken this over, haven’t you?” he asked Mac.

  Mac shrugged his tweed-covered shoulders. “I suppose I have. But that’s because I have a plan. The man with a plan always leads, right?” Will didn’t respond. “You don’t care, do you?”

  “No, I don’t care. If you actually have a plan, I’m with you.”

  “Then I’ll tell you what I think,” Mac said, refilling his pipe. “Kiel has this town sewed up — maybe even this state — but he hasn’t gotten to Washington. Our help has to come directly from there. Well, I have a connection big enough to get some help. He’s an old friend — Henry Neilson. He’s sharp, shrewd, not afraid of the Devil, and in an executive position with the FBI. He’ll come out if I saw him.”

  “Can you make him believe the story?” Will questioned.

  “I can try. I’ll call him tonight if we’re agreed.”

  “Agreed,” Ray said, bobbing his head.

  “Agreed,” Will submitted.

  Mac’s face was ruddy with the thought of action. “You watch. We’ll put an end to this yet.” He went out the door, a belated Christmas carol whistling from his mouth: “God rest ye, merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay.”

  Henry Neilson was unconvinced by the story that Ray, Will and Dr. McGregor told him. And the three men with him were the same. So Mac made a hurried call to be sure Kiel was where he was reported to be — at a reception in the capital building — took Neilson in tow, and set out to crash the party.

  When they returned two hours later, Neilson wasn’t incredulous any more. He faced Ray and demanded: “One question. Is there absolutely no hope of getting the man on our side?”

  “None,” Ray replied surely.

  “Then he has to be eliminated,” Neilson said, bobbing his head as though it were the rap of a sentencing gavel. “He’s infuriating. I don’t like anyone who can make me look so insignificant.”

  “Kiel laughed when I introduced Hank with all his titles,” Mac explained. “He said, ‘Welcome into the fold,’ and laughed.”

  “Maybe I’m foolish,” Neilson growled, “but I’m not used to being considered so unimportant that the man I’m after openly challenges me.”

  “That’s what we’ve been up against. You’re supposed to have some ideas,” Will snapped.

  Neilson rubbed his chin. “It’s obvious that violence isn’t the answer. We could blow him out of existence if he was the only one involved. But we can’t endanger the men he controls, that would be mass slaughter. And we can’t do it by force of numbers, because we can’t let this news out to the public.”

  “Why not?” Ray asked.

  “Panic, young man, panic.”

  “You government men are always afraid of panic,” Ray countered. “You just say the word and close the door.”

  “All right.” Neilson grew stubborn. “People stay off the streets and report banging shutters when they only suspect a murderer is about. What will they do if you tell them that this man, with his power, is among them? Panic!”

  With Ray’s surrendering shrug, Neilson left the room to phone Washington. A half-hour later, he returned, took a stance, and said, “This is official government business now. My orders are to get the job done but to protect all innocent people.”

  “So?” Mac asked.

  “So, since I can’t use force of numbers, I’m enlisting the three of you. An army of four isn’t much; but if we use our brains, it may serve. We need some organization. First, I want my men to meet

  Kiel so that they know whom they’re after. Then, I want a systematic grilling, secretly, of any and all officials we might use — including the men on campus. We need a battery of brains. We can all work on that. Simple conversation should do the trick. If a man professes too much admiration for Kiel, cross him off.”

  A meeting was arranged for the three agents. They met Kiel under the guise of boat enthusiasts trying to get neighborhood permission to use the river as a place for races. They came away sure that they hadn’t fooled him.

  Ray had eight physical examinations in order to question doctors, ten dental checkups, and violated traffic laws to get to police officers and judges. He checked off names one after another. When his list was completed, it was one big pencil scratch all the way down the page.

  Will’s list matched his. So did all the others. Kiel had the town wrapped up tight, and the state was going the same way.

  Then a chance meeting with Kiel at a coffee shop sent Ray home fast. He burst into the living room, shouting at Neilson: “Where are your men? We haven’t asked them the questions, have we?”

  Neilson stamped to the stairway and called his men down.

  “Don’t prepare them,” Ray commanded. “Ask them what they think of Peter Kiel, just as we’ve asked everybody else.”

  The three agents came in casually, staying in a group. Neilson sent two of them out and faced the one remaining. “This is out of my hands, Brown, so forgive me,” he apologized. “I have to ask you a question. You’ve met Peter Kiel. What’s your opinion of him? Actually?”

  “I think this whole thing is a bunch of trash. He’s a pretty fine man.”

  Neilson’s fists clenched into hard balls and he had trouble controlling his voice as he sent Brown out. The other two men were called one at a time and they gave the same reply. They liked Kiel; he was a great man. Neilson immediately ordered them to pack.

  “I’m ashamed!” Neilson’s voice was vehement. “My own men.”

  “There’s no reason to be ashamed,” Ray muttered. “We’ve just made another mistake.”

  “What did he say to you?” Mac asked.

  “He said thanks for bringing in government men. He said it saves him a trip. Now he has an ‘in.’ You’re probably next, Neilson. Those men — and you — will go back to Washington and be there to help him when he comes, to introduce him into high places. It saves him some groundwork.”

  “The nerve of that man,” Neilson growled. “I’ll settle this by sending my men West. They won’t return to Washington and neither will I, until this is over.” His head jerked in apprehension. “Do you suppose I’m being controlled, too? Do you suppose he’s got to me and I don’t even know it?”

  “My guess is,” Mac put in, “that he’s keeping you for last.” “And what do we do in the meantime?” Will asked. “Where does your plan go from here, Neilson?”

  The doorbell chimed and Ray sputtered, “Sorry. This place is getting to be like Grand Central Station.”

  Carol stepping into the hall, her face anxious. “Well,” Ray said, “this is a surprise. You haven’t got Kiel with you, I hope.”

  “No,” she murmured under her breath. “I’m leaving him, Ray. I can’t stand it any more.”

  Ray had been waiting for those words, but now they seemed too secret to be spoken aloud.

  “Why don’t you say something?” she asked.

  “Come into the living room,” Ray said. “There’s a man I want you to meet.”

  She stood straight in the archway, waiting to be introduced to Neilson, knowing who he was already. He pounced on her name, pricking up his ears to catch every word she uttered.

  There was no way to be sure whether Carol had come for the reasons she stated or had been sent to them by Kiel. But trust had to begin somewhere. Ray filled her in on the details of Neilson’s position.

  “My position is so different from yours,” she tried to explain. “Living with him — seeing him every day and sharing his life — it’s hard to think of him in such drastic terms. My mind knows what he is and what he has done, but it won’t quite accept it when I look at him. But that’s over now. I’m leaving him.”

  “Can you leave him?” Will asked pointedly. “Will he let you?” “He won’t be able to stop me. I’ll be gone when he gets home tonight.” Her hazel eyes were sure and resolved.

  “I’m glad you’re getting out of there,” Mac nodded. “This thing is bound to become violent and we’ll have fewer compunctions with you out of the way.”

  “I don’t know.” Neilson sounded undecided. “A bird in the hand — You do know, Mrs. Kiel, that we’re playing this game for keeps, don’t you? That the ultimate end can only be the complete disability or destruction of your husband?”

  “I know.” Carol betrayed neither purpose nor horror.

  “She’s our answer.” Neilson sucked in his lips, swinging to Ray. “You tried attacking from the outside. How about from the inside? Does your husband trust you, my dear?”

  “He didn’t at first; but since I know about him, he does.”

  “And you’re a sensible girl,” Neilson flattered.

  “Of course, she is.” Mac took over. “Your father was always proud of that, Carol — that, and your courage. Do you accept thoroughly the fact that Kiel has to be killed?”

  Carol nodded, the beginning of anxiety on her face.

  “Then,” Mac stated firmly, “you’re the one to do it.”

  Carol leaped to her feet, her body still in protest. “No! How can you even suggest it?”

  “Call it a sacrifice, if you must, but you are the only one,” Neilson parried. “You have his trust; you have access to him — what’s keeping you back? Does he still have a hold on you?”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Carol’s hands partly covered her face. “But, don’t you see, I’ve lived with him! I can’t kill him!”

  “Are you still in love with him?” Ray demanded.

  “No!” she cried. “How could I be in love with him? I just don’t know how I feel. I wish you’d leave me alone.”

  Ray didn’t give her time to gather strength to refuse. He softened his tone and asked: “Carol, stop and think what your father would say if he were here. What would he do?”

 

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