Three to Conquer (32 page)

             
"He won't be carved; we've done all we need of that on dead bodies. Living victims will be used as test subjects for likely vaccines."

             
"What's the chance of developing a satisfactory cure?" Harper asked.

             
"There's another problem far more important," Leeming gave back.
"Namely, whether we can find one in adequate time.
We can succeed and yet fail because success comes too late."

             
"That doesn't answer my question."

             
"I refuse to commit myself at this stage. We aren't the only ones on the job. In a crisis of this sort the government turns to anyone and everyone who can lend a hand, private laboratories included. Somebody else may strike lucky and come up with a solution while we're still seeking it. All we can do here is work like hell and pray."

             
"If produceable, an effective vaccine should be innocuous, shouldn't it?" Harper pursued.

             
"What do you mean?"

             
"The cure shouldn't be little better than the disease?"

             
"What the devil are you getting at?"

             
Harper hesitated, continued carefully, "I'll tell you something. That virus cannot think by itself, any more than you can drive a nonexistent car; but it can think when in possession of a brain. And I know one thing it thinks about. It is scared to death of meningococci."

             
"What?" yelled Leeming,
thunderstruck.

             
"I'm giving you a genuine basic fact. That alien nightmare has a nightmare of its own. No living thing can be possessed by it and have cerebrospinal meningitis at one and the same time. Something has to go under, and it's the virus that does the going."

             
"Where did you learn all this?"

             
"From a victim.
The one they're taking down to you at this moment.'

             
"How did you find out?"

             
"He told me without realizing it. He named his alien obsession, and I'm giving it to you for what it's worth."

             
Leeming breathed heavily, excitement showing in his eyes.

             
"It could be, too. It really could be. Areas of local infection are identical.
Brain and spinal column.
You can see what that means—a fight for living space."

             
"Supposing you squirt someone full of meningococci," Harper went on, "and he becomes cured with respect to the cure itself?"

             
"That's something we've yet to discover," said Leeming, grim and determined.

             
"Well, I've no choice but to leave it with you. All I ask is for you to remember that your first test-subject is my friend."

             
He cut off, racked the phone,
sat
twisting his fingers and staring at them. After a while he held his face in his hands, and murmured, "It had to be Riley and his wife.
Poor devils
!"

-

             
In the late afternoon, Norris beckoned him out of Moira's hearing, said, "They got Mrs. Riley, Mrs. Reed and two men named Farley and Moore. We've discovered that the women are sisters. Farley and Moore were friends of the Reeds. Moore was a close business associate of the Baum brothers. You can see the link-up and how trouble has spread from one to another."

             
"Did they put up a fight?"

             
"You bet they did. When the boys got there the house
was
empty and the front door still swinging. The rats had run for it but hadn't had time to escape from sight. Mrs. Riley, Farley and Moore were nabbed on the street half a mile away. They needed three men apiece to hold them."

             
"And what of the others?"
Harper asked.

             
"Mrs. Reed was picked up in a store pretending to be one of the
crowd
. She reacted like a wildcat. Reed himself stepped off a roof rather than be taken. McDonald was trapped in a parking lot while trying to steal a car. He was armed; he shot it out to the finish."

             
"He is dead?"

             
"Yes.
Same as Langley and for the same reason.
It was impossible to take him alive.
"

             
"
How about Gould?"

             
Norris rocked back. "What d'you
mean
, how about Gould?
"

             
"
He was there at Riley's house.
"

             
"
Are you sure of that?
"

             
"
I'm positive."

             
Accepting that without argument, Norris affirmed, "There was no sign of him. But he
'
ll be found." He
mused
a bit, went on, "We're now tracing all contacts of the entire bunch, and pulling them in as fast as we find them. The total number may come to hundreds. Anyone known to have stood within a yard of any one of them is liable to be taken for questioning. You'd better hold yourself in readiness to look them over as we line them up."

             
"All right."

             
"It may go on for weeks, perhaps months.
"

             
"
I'll suffer it." Harper eyed him speculatively. "You say that Riley's house was deserted when your men arrived?
"

             
"
Yes."

             
"Who tipped them to leave in a hurry?"

             
"Nobody," said Norris. "When Riley didn't return on time, they took alarm and fled."

             
"It was more positive than that," Harper declared. "They were tipped."

             
"By whom?"

             
"By Riley himself.
He couldn't help it. He lost consciousness and that was enough for them. They got, out fast the moment one of your boys clouted Riley on the head. They
knew
he'd been caught."

             
"I don't see how," Norris protested.

             
"Never mind how. I'm telling you that each one of them knows when another has been put out of action."

             
"What of it, anyway?"

             
"At the Bio Lab they're holding an afflicted dog. I've a feeling that sooner or later that- animal may be able to summon help. It's a guess and nothing more. How about persuading Jameson to put a guard on the place?"

             
"It's already protected. You ought to know that; you've been there."

             
"The guard is a military one. It isn't prepared for the sort of trouble we're having here."

             
"You're doing the identification for us at this end," said Norris. "Who'll do it for them down there?
"

             
"
Me."

             
"What, over such a distance?"

             
"I'm going there. I'm a constant center of interest to the foe, no matter where I may be. That dog is a focal point for them; so is each and every live victim we hold. Get them all in one place and we thereby create a cumulative attraction that may prove irresistible. Desire for revenge, rescue and continued concealment should be more than enough to draw the enemy's full strength to the one spot. Their best
bet lies in making a concerted effort. It would be about the only chance we'd get of settling them with a single blow."

             
"
I'll
put it to Jameson and ask him to consult General Conway," said Norris. "The plan is worth considering."

             
"While you're at it, you can tell Jameson that I'm on my way no matter what is decided."

             
"You can't do that."

             
"I can. Try giving me contrary orders and see where it gets you." He grinned at Norris. "I'm a free individual and intend to remain one, with or without the kind permission of Conway or any other character."

             
"But Rausch and I have to stay with you," Norris objected. "And we're supposed to work this trap. It's operating all right; look at today's catch."

             
"The bait is transferring itself to a bigger and better rat-run," Harper gave back. "Please yourself whether you come along."

             
He tramped into his office, found his week-end case, checked its contents, said to Moira, "Hold the fort, rush out" the products, make excuses for me and bank the profits. Papa's taking another trip."

             
Norris and Rausch piled into his car as he was about to start, and the former said, "We've got to hang onto your coattails no matter what you do. Your plant remains under guard, but if someone cockeyed walks into it there'll be nobody to give warning."

             
"Same applies at the Bio Lab, which is now a more enticing target." Harper pulled out from the curb and took the center of the street. "And I cannot be in two places at once."

             
He drove fast, with another burdened car following close behind. His mind reached out and felt around as he went through the town. This time, he decided, a faint threnody of alien thoughts would not be ignored. He was at the wheel and he'd go after it.

             
But it did not come.

             
The car swung into its fenced and patrolled destination an hour after darkness had fallen. Norris immediately put through a call to Jameson, briefed him on latest events. Sometime later, Jameson called back.

             
"You're getting your own way," Norris informed Harper. "Conway has ordered special measures to protect this place."

-

             
The attack came four days afterward, by which time the delay had given some the secret belief that nothing would ever happen.

             
At midday a large, official-looking car slid.
Up to the gates barring the main entrance.
Its driver was attired as a sergeant of military police, and its sole passenger was a grey-
haired
, autocratic man in the uniform of a four-star general. The sergeant showed the sentry an imposing pass, stamped, signed and ornamented with a large seal. The sentry scanned it slowly, making no attempt to open the gates. He smelled eucalyptus.