Three to Conquer (34 page)

             
With sweating hand on the car's door, he stood and listened again, seeking it directively. There it came. It was not alien; it had only seemed to be so because new and strange, like nothing previously encountered. It had power and clarity as different from other thought-streams as champagne differs from water.

             
He probed at it and immediately it came back with shock equal to his own. Getting into his car, he sat there shakily. His mind fizzed with excitement and there were butterflies in his stomach while he remained staring through the windshield and apparently daydreaming. Finally, he drove to a large restaurant, ordered dinner.

             
She had a table to herself, at the opposite end of the room.
A strawberry blonde, small, plump, in her middle thirties.
Her face was pleasantly freckled and she had a tiptilted nose.
At no time did she glance his way; neither did he pay any attention to her when he departed.

             
After that they met frequently, without ever coming near each other or exchanging one vocal word. Sometimes he ate in one place while she sipped coffee in another half a mile away. Other times he mused absently in the office while she became thoughtful in a distant store. They took in the same show, he in one part of the theatre and she in another, and neither saw much of the performance.

             
They were waiting, waiting for circumstances to change with enough naturalness and inevitability to fool the watchers. The opportunity was coming; they both knew that. Moira was wearing a diamond ring.

             
In due course, Moira departed with congratulations and a wedding gift. Twenty girls answered the call for her successor. Harper interviewed 'them all, according each one the same courtesy, putting the same questions, displaying no visible favoritism one way or the other.

             
He chose Frances, a strawberry blonde with a plump figure and pert nose.

             
Ten days later Norris arrived on his periodic visit, looked over the newcomer, favored her with a pleasant smile,
mentally
defined her as nice and nothing more. He started the chitchat while Harper listened and gazed dreamily at a point behind the other's back.

             
"For the fiftieth time, will you marry me?"

             
"For the fiftieth time,
yes.
But you must b
e patient. We'll fall into it gradually."

             
"So this fellow showed the manager a bunch of documents certifying him to be a bank examiner from head office," droned Norris. "The manager fell for it, and—" He paused, added in louder tones, "Hey! Are you paying attention?"

             
"Of course.
Carry on. I can hardly wait for the climax."

             
"I don't want to be patient. I don't want to be gradual. I want to fall into it fast."

             
"You know better than that. We must be careful."

             
"I want children just like us."

             
"Wait!"

             
She slipped paper into her typewriter, adjusted it, pink-faced and smiling,

             
"That was his downfall," finished Norris, completely innocent of the byplay. "So he tied himself up for life."

             
"Don't we all?
"
said Harper, hiding his bliss.

The End

* * * * * *

IN HUMAN FORM
—
THEY WERE

CONTAGION TO HUMANITY!

             
To the naked eye the girl now entering her house looked like a normal human being. Cautiously Wade Harper moved out of his hiding place into her view. Could this attractive young lady possibly be his quarry? With his unique mental talent, he threw a thought probe at her.

             
What happened then was so shocking that instinctively he drew his gun and fired at her. For in her first unguarded thought she had revealed herself. She had called him
a Terrestrial bastard!

             
Thus began the horror that threatened to turn the h
uman race into the walking dead!

CAST OF CHARACTERS

WADE HARPER

             
He had the power to save the world—or let it be destroyed.

LANGLEY, McDONALD, GOULD

             
They could kill and conquer—from beyond the grave.

JOYCE W
H
ITTINGHAM

             
Her mother never told her the dangers of hitchhiking I

RILEY

             
His shroud was sewn by a hypodermic needle.

MOIRA

             
She could typewrite for her boss—but he wasn't her type.

ALDERSON

             
He was better off dead.

Three
to
Conquer

by

ERIC FRANK RUSSELL

ACE BOOKS

A Division of A. A. Wyn, Inc.

23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.

Three
To
Conquer

Copyright, 1956, by Eric Frank Russell

An Ace Book, by arrangement with Bouregy & Curl, Inc.

Copyright, 1955, by Street & Smith, Inc., for
Astounding Science Fiction.

Printed in U. S. A.