Three to Conquer (15 page)

             
"I suppose so; but I couldn't swear to it. If we radiate more powerfully than the average human—"

             
"Yes, but your lack of contact is no proof of your uniqueness? For all we know to the contrary there may be fifty or a hundred telepaths in this very city?"

             
"I think it most unlikely, but wouldn't define it as impossible."

             
"What is your effective range?" asked Conway.

             
"About eight hundred yards.
It varies from time to time. On rare occasions, I have received at three times that distance. Other times it drops to a hundred or less."

             
"Do you know the cause of such variation? Is it due to the nature of surroundings, blanking by big buildings, or anything similar?"

             
"I could not say for sure, not having subjected the matter to systematic test. Surroundings make no difference and that's all I'm certain about."

             
"But you have a theory?" Conway pressed.

             
"Yes," admitted Harper. "I suspect that on any given occasion, my range is determined by the amplitude of the other person's radiations. The more powerfully he
broadcasts,
the greater the distance over which I can pick him up.
The weaker, the less distance.
As I've said, it would require scientific tests to establish the truth or falsity of that notion."

             
"Are you willing to undergo such tests?"

             
"I am not," declared Harper.

             
"Why not?"

             
"The immediate problem is not that of what to do about telepaths; it's what to do about invading Venusians. Nobody is going to use me for a guinea pig."

             
"Don't view it in that light, Mr. Harper," Conway soothed. "We appreciate to the full the excellent part you have played. The trouble is that we're not satisfied. We want more of you. We want all you can give. In fact, we need it so badly that we demand it as of right."

             
"What do you require of me?"

             
"All the information we can get out of you
now,
and perhaps some action later."

             
"Go ahead. Let no man say Wade Harper was unable to suffer."

             
Conway signed to Benfield. "Switch on that tape-recorder." He returned his attention to Harper. "This one is of the utmost importance; I want you to answer it with the greatest clarity you can command. What impelled you to shoot Jocel
y
n Whittingham?"

             
"That's a tough question," Harper replied. "I cannot translate it into terms you understand; it's like trying to describe a rose to a man blind from birth."

             
"Never mind.
Do your best."

             
"All right.
It was somewhat like this: you're in your wife's bedroom. You notice a new and pretty jewel box on her dressing table. Full of curiosity, you open it. The thing contains a
live whip snake. The snake sees you the same instant. It leaps out. Despite the shock, you act fast. You swipe it in mid-air, knock it to the floor,
crush
it under heel. That's how it was."

             
"I see." Conway stared at him thoughtfully, then asked,
"Can't you express it in a manner more in keeping with what actually happened?"

             
"She started up the steps. I knew she might be the girl I was seeking. I made a stab at her mind for the sole purpose of identifying her. The moment I touched, I realized what I had touched. At the same moment—"

             
"What
did you touch?" inquired Conway.

             
"Something not human; I cannot describe it more accurately. I planted a telepathic hand fairly and squarely on the mental field of a non-human entity. At the same instant,
it
felt my touch. That was additional confirmation, if any were needed, because no normal human being can sense a telepathic probe. I realized several things in that split second: First, she didn't know whence the probe had come. She had no directional sense such as I possess. But she correctly assumed that it came from me, because I was in plain sight and already racing toward her."

             
"She did not
know
it was you?" repeated Conway. "You mean
,
she was in no way telepathic herself?"

             
"I hadn't any evidence of it. There was only that abnormal sensitivity which, I
suppose,
has been developed as a defense-mechanism somewhere else. She did know, beyond all doubt, that suddenly and without warning, a strange and dangerous mind had lifted her mask and seen beneath. She gave out a panicky thought that she must get away, she must warn the others that they're not as well-hidden as they
think,
that they
can
be exposed."

             
"A-a-ah
!"
Conway displayed hopefulness. "So she knew the precise location of these others? She knew how to get into touch with them?"

             
"If so," Harper, "her mind did not admit it. Things
were moving fast. We were both thunderstruck by the encounter. Her mind was yelling,
'Escape, escape, escape!'
while mine ordered imperatively,
'Stop her, stop, stop
...
kill, kill
!
'
I shot her down without any
compunctions
whatsoever. I'd quite forgotten that she was a girl, or had been a girl. For the moment she was something else, something that had to be laid good and cold. I gave her the magazine right through the head. I heard the alien mentality cease sizzling and fade to nothingness. That showed it could die."

             
"Then you went away, without making further examination?"

             
"I did; I had no time for further horsing around. I didn't dare risk being picked up anywhere but here. To tell this story in any police barracks or sheriff's office, where they didn't know the score, would eventually land me in an asylum."

             
"Couldn't you have saved time, trouble and anxiety by calling us long distance?"

             
"How far would I have got that way? Some underling would have sent police to the booth to pick up a loony. I've had a tough enough job reaching the right people in person."

             
None of the listeners relished that remark, but were unable to deny the truth of it. A formidable guard of minor officials stood between the high executive and a besieging force of malcontents, theorists, halfwits and world-doomers. Perforce they also held at bay the rare individual with something genuinely worth hearing.

             
General Conway
harumphed,
decided that there were no satisfactory methods of overcoming this difficulty, went on to say, "You have made contact with an alien life-form. So far as we know, you're the only one who has done so and remained able and willing to talk about it. Can you add anything that may help us to determine the true nature of the foe?"

             
"I didn't see it with my own two eyes. Therefore, I cannot assist you with an accurate description."

             
"Quite so.
But you must have gained some kind of an impression."

             
Thinking it over, Harper conceded, "Yes, that's true.
"

             
"
Let us have it. No matter how vague or fleeting, we need every datum we can get on this subject."

             
"For no apparent reason, I felt that alien ownership of another body is a natural phenomenon. That is to say, I knew, more or less instinctively, that the thing occupying the body of Jocelyn Whittingham was functionally designed for such a purpose. It was perfectly at home, and knew how to use what it had gained. The girl was a human being, from toes to hair, in all respects but one: another and different life-spark had been substituted."

             
"Which suggests that
it's
nature, is wholly parasitic?" asked Conway. "It normally exists in possession of some other life-form?"

             
"Yes. It's an old hand a
t t
hat game."

             
"And that, in turn, suggests that when it acquires another body, it also gains the data within the brain, all the knowledge, the memory and so forth?"

             
"Undoubtedly.
It could not survive without doing so; otherwise, its own incompetence would betray it at once."

             
Turning his attention to Benfield, the general remarked, "The inevitable deduction is that Venus harbors various life-forms, some of which are the natural prey of a possessive parasite. Also, that this parasite is capable of taking over a form higher than any in its own habitat. It can adapt right out if its own environment and, if I may put it that way, it can raise itself by
its
own bootstraps."

             
Benfield nodded agreement.

             
"Also," continued Conway, "It is probably microscopic, or germlike. That's my guess;
I'll
have to leave that angle to
others more
expert
. They'll be able to make shrewder esti
mates of its characteristics."

             
"It would help more than somewhat if we could discover how that girl was mastered," Harper pointed out. "Her body might tell the story."

             
'That is being looked into. We have confiscated her corpse, despite violent objections from her relatives."

             
Harper looked at him, eyes glowing. "Which of them raised the biggest outcry?""

             
About to add something more, Conway paused and registered momentary bafflement.

             
"Why?"

             
"We Venusians must stick together.
"

             
"
You mean—?"

             
"Yes, I mean what you're now thinking."

             
Firming his lips, Conway reached for the phone, ordered, "Take the entire Whittingham family into safekeeping at once. No, it is not an arrest; there are no charges. Tell them it's for their own protection. Eh? If their lawyer chips in, refer him directly to me."

             
"That will do a fat lot of good," remarked Harper. "If one or more of the Whittinghams is no longer of this world, you're helping him create a bunch of Venusian cops out west."

             
"It's a risk we
'
ll have to take."

             
"Not necessarily. You could put them in animal cages, and feed them with long tongs. Anything—anything,
so
long as they can't get near enough to help themselves to their own guards."