It was a job the car out of the and into the street. Lockley was that starting the would make a noise which in the of the town's be for a long way. The of the starter, though, only for seconds. It might make men listen, but they it the and ran quietly. Also, the trailer-truck was still in motion and making its own noise. Of it was and here and there to try to Lockley and Jill.
So Lockley the car into the as as was possible. He did not turn on the lights. He stopped, away from the area in which the rumbled. He sent the car at a crawl. Then an idea to him and cold ran his spine. It is possible to use a to up the of a car. Normally such are so the car's own radio will work. But sometimes a radio is out of order. It was of Lockley's of luck and that he of so a disaster.
He the car into motion, his ears for any that the reacted. Then he moved the car slowly away from the district. It self-control to go slowly. While among the the to at top speed was strong. But he his teeth. A car makes much less noise when in motion. He it as as a under the trees and the lamps.
They got out of town. The last of the was them. There was only ahead, and an unknown road with many and curves. Sometimes there were roadsigns, visible as the highway. They of and other hazards, but they not be read Lockley without lights. He left the car dark any would have been visible to the men of the trailer-truck for a very long way.
Starlight is not good for fast driving, and when a road through a space it is nerve-racking. Lockley with foreboding, every and every tense. But just after a painful progress through a series of with high trees on either which he managed by looking up at the sky and under the middle of the of he see, Lockley touched the and stopped the car.
"What's the matter?" asked Jill, as he under the panel.
"I think," said Lockley, "that I must have something in that truck. Otherwise they'd have their on us just to even.
"But maybe they'll be able to make a repair. In any case there are other beams. Those are and the where they are and calls by radio to have them off when it wants to go by. That would work. Using the Wild Life was very clever."
He at something. It gave. He out a length of wire and started on one end of it.
"If they we got a car," he observed, "they'll us to into a road that would the car and us. I'm taking a small against that. Here." He put the wire's end into her hand. "It's the lead-in from this car's radio antenna. It ought to us of across the road as my watch did in the hills. Hold it."
"I will," said Jill.
"One more item," he said. He got out of the car and closed the door quickly. He to the back. There was the of glass. He returned, saying, "No lights will go on now. I'll try to do something about that light." With a he it. "Now we be as hard to as that Wild Life was the other night."
Jill as the car got into motion again.
"You it was—Oh!"
"Most likely," Lockley, "it was the thing that out of the park and Maplewood, terror in all directions. Some of the truck's would have had to make hoofprints. They a or two. And there was the of studying these creatures, men."
They on at not more than fifteen miles an hour. The car was almost soundless. They in the night. There was a steady, high above where Air Force the Park. After a time Jill said, "You when you talked to that general."
"I was," said Lockley. "I am. He played it safe, to admit that in authority over him possibly be mistaken. That's policy, and I was the official opinion of his superiors. I've got to somebody of much rank, or much higher. Maybe—"
Jill said in a voice, "Stop!"
He braked. She said unsteadily, "Holding the wire, I that smell."
He put his hand on the wire's end. He the sensation.
"Terror across the highway," he said calmly. "Maybe on our account, maybe not. But there was a road a little way back."
He the car. He'd the lights, too. He himself by starlight. Presently he the wheel and the car about. He the way he had come. A mile or so, and there was another hard-surface road off. He took it. Half an hour later Jill said quickly, "Brakes!"
The road was once more by an terror beam, into which any car moving at speed must move its driver warning.
"This isn't good," he said coldly. "They may have some good places to block. We have to go almost at random, just that away from the Park. I don't know how they can us in, though."
There was a of light in the sky. Lockley his around. It again. Lightning. The sky was up.
"It's worse," he said in a voice. "I've been taking every turn that ought to lead us away from the Park, but I've had to use the for direction. I didn't think that soldiers would keep us from away from here. I was almost confident. But what will I do without the stars?"
He on. The clouds up, out the heavens. Once Lockley saw a in the sky and his teeth. He away from it at the opportunity. The be Serena, and he have been toward it by the of the he'd without lights. Twice Jill him of across the highway. Once, by his anxiety, his almost failed to stop him in time. When the car did stop, he was aware of on his skin. There were in his eyes, too, and a of which by with past him nauseated. Perhaps this from the terror was through the metal of the car.
When he got out of that terror the sky was three-quarters out and he was well away from the spot there was only a of well toward the horizon. There were overhead. After a time he on them to him the road.
Then the rain came. The increased. The road and turned. Twice the car off onto the road's shoulders, but each time he it. As time passed worse. It was urgent that he as as possible from Serena, of the Wild Life which Jill and himself if its were repaired, and them if they weren't. But it was most urgent that he away the to men who would to his and see that use was of it. Yet in rain and darkness, without car lights and to drive only at a crawl, he might be around.
"I think," he said at last, "I'll turn in at the next farm gate the us. I'll try to the car into a so it won't up at daybreak. We might be into the Park!"
He did turn, the next time a him a turn-off a free mailbox. There was a house at the end of a lane. There was a barn. He got out and was instantly, but he the open space the wide, open doors. He the car in.
"So," he to Jill, "if we have a to move we won't have to around first."
They sat in the car and looked out at the rain-filled darkness. There was no light when on the rain. In such they out the farmhouse, of water from its eaves. There was a chicken house. There were fences. They not see to the gate or the through the water, but there had been solid where they off into the lane.
"We'll wait," said Lockley distastefully, "to see if we are in a tight spot in the morning. If we're well away—and I've no idea where we are—we'll go on. If not, we'll till dark and for to by when we go."
Jill said confidently, "We'll make it. But where to?"
"To any place away from Boulder Lake Park, and where I'm a being of a civilian. To where I can some to people who'll listen, if it isn't too late."
"It's not," said Jill with as much as before.
There was a pause. The rain down. Lightning flashed. Thunder roared.
"I didn't know," said Jill tentatively, "that you the invaders—the monsters—had people helping them."
"The picture isn't a one," he told her. "But there's a design that somebody us. For instance, nobody's been killed. At least not publicly. That was by somebody who that if there was a massacre, we'd to the end of our and teach our children to after us."
She it over. "You'd be that way," she said presently. "But not everybody. Some people will do anything to alive. But you wouldn't."
The rain on the roof. Lockley said, "But what's isn't what would devise. Humans who planned a would know they couldn't make us to them. If this was a of Pearl Harbor attack by enemies—and you can who it might be—they might as well start killing us on the largest possible at the beginning. If with no about us landed, they might some with the idea of us. But there haven't been any massacres. So it's neither a cold an landing of monsters. There's another in it somewhere. Monster-human is only a guess. I'm not satisfied, but it's the best answer so far."
Jill was for a long time. Then she said irrelevantly, "You must have been a good friend of ... of...."
"Vale?" Lockley said. "No. I him, but that's all. He only joined the Survey a months ago. I don't I've talked to him a dozen times, and four of those times he was with you. Why'd you think we were close friends?"
"What you've done for me," she said in the darkness.
He waited for a to him her expression. She was looking at him.
"I didn't do it for Vale," said Lockley.
"Then why?"
"I'd have done it for anyone," said Lockley ungraciously.
In a way it was true, of course. But he wouldn't have gone up to the to make sure that anyone hadn't been left behind. The idea wouldn't have to him.
"I don't think that's true," said Jill.
He did not answer. If Vale was alive, Jill was to him; although if out, Lockley would not be such a as to play the and let her Vale by default. On the other hand, if Vale was dead, he wouldn't be the of who'd try to win her for himself she'd and from Vale's death. A girl herself for her to a man, but not for to a one.
"I think," said Lockley deliberately, "that we should the subject. I will talk about why I to the Lake after you when has settled down. I had reasons. I still have them. I will them, eventually, Vale it or not. But not now."
There was a long silence, while rain with and the world was only a of lightning-lighted of water.
"Thanks," said Jill very quietly. "I'm glad."
And then they sat in while the long hours by. Eventually they dozed. Lockley was by the of the rain. It was then just the of dawn. The sky was still with clouds. The ground was soaked. There were here and there in the barnyard, and water from the barn's eaves, and from the now visible house, and from the two or three trees it.
Lockley opened the car door and got out quietly. Jill did not waken. He visited the chicken house, and came out of it. He eggs. He to the house, from to patch, the them. He bread, of and of food. He the lane. The car's had been out. He to himself.
He to the barn. There was still only half-light. He the doors almost him, only a four-inch to see through. Now the car was safely out of and there was no that any being was near.
"You closed the doors," said Jill. "Why?"
He said reluctantly, "I'm we're as off as we were at the beginning. Unless I'm mistaken, we got around in that on those roads, and the Park nearby. This isn't the I up on to you, the one where my car's wrecked. This is another one. I don't think we're more than twenty miles from the Lake, here. And that's something I didn't intend!"
He to his pockets.
"I got something for us to eat. We'll just have to low until night and our way out toward the cordon, with the to us."
There was silence, save for the of water. Lockley was with a of with himself. He that he'd like an in trying to the area by car. But there'd been nothing else to do. Before that he'd been when the Wild Life came a that he'd was by a terror beam. And he'd been a to to discuss why he'd gone up to the to see to her safety when by all the of it was none of his business.
The light a little. Through the the doors, he see past the house. Then he see the length of the and the trees on the of the highway.
He was out the food when he froze, listening. The of just-before-dawn was by the of an internal-combustion engine. It was a familiar of rumbling. It nearer. Except for the of from and to the ground below, it was the only in all the world.
It louder. Jill her hands unconsciously.
"I don't think there are any car at the turn-off where we came in," said Lockley in a level voice. "The rain should have them out. It's not likely they're looking for us here anyhow. But I've only got three left in the pistol. Maybe you'd go off and in the cornfield. Then if go they'll I left you somewhere."
"No," said Jill composedly, "I'd in the ground. They'd me."
Lockley ground his teeth. He got out the pistol he'd taken from the driver in the room in Serena. He looked at it grimly. It would be useless, but....
Jill came and him, his face.
The of the was still nearer and louder. It for a moment where a in the road took the vehicle some trees that its noise. But then the suddenly. It was very loud and near.
Lockley through the the doors. He well his be seen.
The trailer-truck with the Wild Life Control on it past. It and roared. The noise thunderous. Its as they through a close by the gate.
It away into the distance. Jill took a of relief. Lockley a gesture.
He listened. The noise on for what he to be a mile or more. Then they it stop. Only by his ears Lockley up the of an motor. Maybe that was imagination. Certainly at any other less time he not possibly have it. Jill whispered, "Do you think—"
He for again. The engine to idle. One minute. Two. Three. Then the of and the of the engine once more. The on. Its diminished. It away altogether.
"They got to a place where the road's with a terror beam," said Lockley evenly. "They stopped and called by and the was cut off, then they past the block-point and the was on again."
He a decision.
"We'll have breakfast," he said shortly. "We'll have to eat the eggs raw, but we need to eat. Then we'll out. It may be that we'd be to about and try to to the on foot, of food on the way. There can't be too many ... collaborators. And we keep out of sight."
He opened a of preserves.
"But it would be for you to be by car, if tonight's clear and there's to drive by."
Jill said practically, "There might be some news...."
Her hands as she put the pocket radio on the of the car. Lockley noticed it. He felt, himself, the of their long through the with in every they drew. And he was in a different way by the proof that were with the monsters. It was that be a not only to his own country but to all the race. He incredulous. It couldn't be true! But it was.
The radio noises. Lockley it in another direction. There was music. Jill's worked. She not to how she felt.
The radio said, "Special news bulletin! Special news bulletin! The Pentagon that for the time there has been complete success in the terror used by the space at Boulder Lake! Working around the clock, of and American scientists have a of what is an new type of which produces every one of the of the terror beam! It is low-power, so far, and has not produced complete in animals. Volunteers have submitted themselves to it, however, and report that it produces the by members of the around Boulder Lake. A crash program for the of the is already under way. At the same time a crash program to a to it is already promising results. The are that a complete defense against the no longer will be found. There is no longer any to that earth will be unable to itself against the now present on earth, or any they may receive!"
The stopped and a called the attention of to the of an anti-allergy pill. Jill Lockley's face. He did not relax.
The resumed. With this full and of a defense against the weapon, said the announcer, it not to the ship if it be for study. The use of was, therefore, again postponed. But they would be used if necessary. Meanwhile, against such an emergency, the of would be enlarged. People would be from additional so if were used there would be no near to be harmed.
Another commercial. Lockley off the radio.
"What do you think?" asked Jill.
"I wish they hadn't that broadcast," said Lockley. "If there were only and they didn't English, it would be all right. But with helping them, it sets a deadline. If we're going to their weapon, they have to use it we the job."
After a moment he said bitterly, "There was a time, right after the last big war, when we had the bomb and nobody else did. There couldn't be a cold then! There were years when we others and they couldn't have back. Now somebody else is in that position. They can us and we can't do a thing. It'll be that way for a week, or maybe two, or three. It'll be if they don't take of their opportunity."
Jill to eat the food Lockley had out. She couldn't. She to quietly. Lockley at himself for telling her the worst, which it was always his to see. He said urgently, "Hold it! That's the that happen. But it's not the most likely!"
She to her tears.
"We're in a fix, yes!" he said insistently. "It look like there may be a of other space ship days. But the don't want to kill people. They want a world with people for them, not dead. They've proved it. They'll avoid massacres. They won't let the who're their the people they want alive and useful."
Jill her fists. "But it would be to be than like that!"
"But wait!" Lockley. "We've the terror beam. Do you think they'll it at that? The men who know how to do it will be to a dozen or a hundred places, so they can't possibly all be found, and they'll keep on until they've the and a protection against them and then something more still! We can't be conquered! We'll to the end of time!"
"But you yourself," said Jill desperately, "you said there couldn't be a defense against the beam! You said it!"
"I was discouraged," he protested. "I wasn't straight. Look! With no at all, I out how to the it was to us. You know that. The scientists will have and instruments, and now that they've got the they'll be able to try things. They'll do than I did. They can try the beam. They can try for effects. They may something to it, or they can try refraction."
He paused anxiously. She sobbed, once. "But other weapons—"
"There may not be any. And there's to be some of that'll help. It out at the now. That's how we of it. It's by in the air. That's why it isn't a tight beam. Ions in the air act like of mist; they and make after rain. And we got the smell-effect first. That proves there's refraction."
He her face. She swallowed. What he'd said was without meaning. Actually, it wasn't right. The so was that the nerves of were more than the nerves or the ones, while nerves to of were less still. But Lockley wasn't with just now. He wanted to Jill.
Then his and he past her. He'd been speaking out of emotion, while a part of his mind and listened. And that part of his mind had him say something noting.
He stock-still for seconds, blankly. Then he said very quietly, "You me think, then. I don't know why I didn't, before. The terror a little, like a in thin mist. It's by ions, like light by mist-droplets. That's right!"
He stopped, ahead. Jill said challengingly, "Go on!" Again what he'd said had little meaning to her, but she see that he it important.
"Why, a is stopped by a cloud, which is many mist-droplets in one place. It's until it doesn't penetrate!" Lockley at his own failure to see something that had been so all along. "If we make a cloud of ions, it should stop the terror as clouds stop light! We could—"
Again he stopped short, and Jill's changed. She looked again. She looked proud as she Lockley with his problem, his fingers.
"Vale and I," he said jerkily, "had base-measuring instruments. Some of their had to be in plastic otherwise they the air and like a short. If I had that now—No. I'd have to take the plastic away and it couldn't be done without things."
"What would happen," asked Jill, "if you what you're about?"
"I might," said Lockley. "I just possibly might make a that would create a cloud of around the person who it. And it might some of the terror and the so none got through to the man!"
Jill said hopefully, "Then tonight we go into a town and the you need...."
Lockley in a voice, "No-o-o-o. What I need, I think, is a and the pocket radio. And there should be a in the house."
He at the door gap, and then out. Presently he was back. He had not only a but also a grater. Both were of thin metal in which many had been punched, so that of metal out to make the surface. Lockley that points, when electrically, make of air which will a flame. Here there were thousands of such points.
He set to work on the car seat, pushing the pistol with its three out of the way. The pistol was for Jill in case of events, when it would be of little or no practical value.
He on the radio with his pocket-knife to a which should when the was on. There was induction, to the at the and of the oscillations. A as a to make the of of one in the points of the graters. And there was an he did not anticipate. The ion-forming points were of different lengths and patterns, so the the clouds was of lengths. The of using the two was, of course, that of energy themselves in ultra-microscopic for a from the device. But Lockley did not plan that. It of the materials he had to use in of something better.
When it was he told Jill, "I can only check production here. If it works, it ought to make a lighter-flame when near the points. If it that, I'll go up the road to where the trailer-truck stopped. I've a good idea that the road's by a terror there."
Absorbed, he the switch. And there was a racking, explosion. The pistol on the car seat itself to bits, the and the open. The three in its had simultaneously.
Lockley a pitchfork. He savagely, for anything. Powder through the barn. Nothing else happened.
After long, moments, Lockley said slowly, "That be another the have on. It's been imagined. They be using a or a we haven't to the of the cordon. They have a that sets off at a distance. It's possible. And if that's what they're on they only have to the sky and the will be out."
But there were no other than the slowly of water from the roof, and the house eaves, and the trees in the barnyard.
"Anyhow they've our only weapon," said Lockley coldly. "It would be a setting off the cartridges. That would be a perfect protection against bombs, if the chemical that makes them go off be from a distance. Clever people, these monsters!"
Then he said abruptly, "Come on! It's ten times more necessary for us to to where somebody can make use of our information!"
"Go where?" asked Jill, once more.
"We take to the until dark," said Lockley, "and meanwhile I'll check this promising gadget—though it looks if the have a beam—against the road up yonder. Come on!"
He his pockets with food. He the way.
The had now arrived. The sun was visible, red at the horizon.
"Walk on the grass!" Lockley.
There was no point in footprints, though there was no to the on the car seat had been heard. Lockley, indeed, that if the had just used a weapon, there would be of or all over the and all other its range. There wouldn't be many without a put away somewhere. There would be shells, too. If the had a as well as one that produced the terror beam's effects, then all of was gone.
They to the house and moved alongside it. They with out of the and into the on the side. They were almost immediately. Fallen to their shoes. Drooping them with wetness. Lockley out of of the and then in the direction the Wild Life Control trailer-truck had taken. He Jill the of that had been the of his watch.
"We might up the from the underfoot," he said, "but we'll play it safe and use this too."
They on for a long way. Lockley fumed, "I don't like this! We ought to be there—"
"I think," said Jill, "I it."
"I'll try it," said Lockley.
He the and its odors. He Jill back.
"Wait here, by this big tree stump. I'll be able to you and you're safe from the beam."
He away. Jill said pleadingly, "Please be careful!"
"A little while ago," he told her gloomily, "I that I had too much useful to take any with my life, let alone yours. I'm not so sure of my now. But I think you still need somebody else around."
"I do!" said Jill. "And you know it! I'd much rather—"
"I'll be back," he repeated.
He away, the watch spring.
He was now. The and stronger. He to the of light in his eyes. It was the which the when a terror beam. Then a faint, murmur, in his own ears. He on the device of two and the of a pocket radio. The ceased. The of light stopped. There was no longer a sound.
He off the producing device. The returned. He it on and off. He took a step forward. He again. The cloud of from the points was invisible, but somehow it or reflected—in any case, neutralized—the of the beings at Boulder Lake. He on and presently he the very possible of his skin and the of a sound, and the as something so that he was sure he it.
He on, and those ceased. Presently, of his own timorousness, he the device off again. He had walked through the terror beam.
He started with the device on once more and at the point where he'd the beam's faintly, he stopped to his now triumph. If the had a this meant nothing. Yet it have meant everything. He paid close attention and but the of the terror beam.
Then he didn't. Not at all. The were cut off.
He Jill out shrilly. He toward the place where he had left her. He raced. He leaped. Once he fell, and at the wet that had him to slip. He the tree and Jill was not there. He saw the saucer-sized her had on the leaves. They toward the road.
He a car door and a roar. He more than before.
The away. And Lockley got out on the only in time to see the of a brown-painted, military-marked car some three hundred yards away. It around a of the and was gone. It was going through the space where the road was by a terror beam, for Boulder Lake.
What had was self-evident. From her place the she'd a car approaching. And she and Lockley had been trying to the of around Boulder Lake. There was no to men in or in a car. She'd to flag it down. She had. By a coincidence, it was where a of would have stopped to have the road-blocking cut off by their allies. She'd approached the stopped car. And something her. She screamed.
But she'd been into the car, which on the come on again to stop it.
