pressionlessly.

"You might have left me something to dissect," complained Simon.
"Somebody's got to, you know."

"I'll mop you up a sponge full," said Andrews.

"Oh, no, you won't. You and your men stay back here. It's probably
crawling with alien bacteria."

Actually, quite a lot of the Assassin was left, but decomposition was
very rapid. Simon did the best he could with a magnifying glass and a
penknife. He found that the body was almost entirely composed of bone
and flesh in a honey-comb like structure. The bone being highly
flexible, and the cavities filled with grey flesh. Flesh which quickly
liquified and drained away from the bone. There was no blood, and
Simon could find no trace of internal organs.

While he worked two more cars drove up, and gave him a little more
light, but soon he had to give up. As he walked slowly back a
spotlight sprang suddenly to life, and a pleasant authoritative voice
spoke.

"Will you stay where you are, please, Doctor Cartwright."

Simon obeyed. Hell, he thought wearily. Officialdom has arrived. He
shaded his eyes against the light, but he could see nothing.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"Commanding officer in charge of operations in this emergency. You've
made an examination?"

"As far as I could. There's complete decomposition now."

"Oh, I see." A slight pause, then; "Perhaps I'd better put you in the
picture. This is armed aggression, Doctor Cartwright. In any language
it says war. Do you understand? We're at war, now.

"We found the vessel your friend came in several days ago. It was in
the sea, twenty miles from here. Its discovery was kept secret because
we weren't sure of its point of origin. Our people are engaged in
finding the method of propulsion. They say it will give us the ability
to travel in space. They also say that they can find the approximate
position of its home planet. All that is top priority, of course, but
in the meanwhile we must have an emergency line of defence against
these things. We want to know how to find them and how to destroy them
with the least possible expenditure of life and material. You
understand?"

"Yes. I've got an idea about light waves. I fired a shot at it back
there. The bone structure--"

"Don't tell me," interrupted the voice sharply. "Remember it. You
realize, Doctor Cartwright, that you are just about the most important
man alive. You know how fast it can move. You have fought it, you
have examined it. So you can b