his hair. "Keep your fingers crossed."

Walt, seated beside Julia, concentrated on the book. It floated above
the desk.

Dr. Norvel moved the dial. Her face was pale and drawn.

The general coughed nervously.

The control light of the generator winked out.

Everyone held his breath.

The air was filled with the sharp, acrid odor of burning wiring.

"Unplug it!" Dr. Norvel cried.

A technician cut off the power.

"Oh, damn, damn, damn," Dr. Norvel said tonelessly.

The generator still smoked. A technician was trying to see into the
wiring behind the panel. "Something shorted," he said unnecessarily,
"It's a mess."

"We've got to get it fixed," Julia said dully.

Dr. Norvel collapsed, crying quietly. "It's too late; it's too late;
it's too late."

"We worked too fast--"

Walt stood up. The book fell with a sharp, explosive sound now that he
had stopped concentrating on it. "We'll have to find my frequency on the
other generator."

"Not until we get all the first wave of mutants under control," Julia
said. "We can't shut off their interference before."

"Suppose it takes as long on your frequency as it did on Julia's?" Dr.
Norvel said. "... I don't think we've got that kind of time. As soon as
_they_ realize something's wrong...."

"What else can we do?" Walt asked.

Nobody answered.

Dr. Norvel rummaged nervously through her smock. "Anybody got a
cigarette?"

The general fumbled in his uniform. "... I'm out ... Colonel?"

"I'll send out for some, sir."

"Try in my handbag," Julia said. "I think there's some there."

The general went to the handbag. He opened it. He removed the birth
certificates and found the cigarettes.

Dr. Norvel took one from him and lit it. "Thanks."

"What's these?" the general asked.

"Birth certificates," Julia said.

"Uh--?"

"Of some of the mutants," Julia said. "I kept them, kept them to
establish paternity. When they were all captured."

The general tossed them on the table. "It doesn't look like we'll need
them.... Well, let's get that second machine going."

Technicians were already stripping out burned wiring. One of them was
scribbling a list of replacement parts on a loose sheet of paper.

"I better see how many we've captured, so far," the general said. "How
long it will take to get them all."

The colonel stood respectfully aside, and the general walked heavily to
the office.

* * * * *

The laboratory was sil