to be destroyed," the creature cut in.

"By fire and brimstone on judgment day?" Cantrell asked sarcastically.

"No. By rendering you helpless by--"

Here the creature swallowed, blinked and looked surprised--and changed
magically. He--if it really was a he--didn't jump up and kick a hole in
the ceiling or anything like that. In fact, nothing tangible happened.
There just seemed to be an invisible barrier that rose suddenly around
him.

Then there was the thing that chilled every man in the room; a thing as
tangible as the walls and the furniture; yet a thing no man could define
in words.

This was when Cantrell, a high-strung individual at best, reacted
violently to the change in the creature. In an instinctive blaze of
anger and frustration, Cantrell reached out and slapped him brutally
across the face.

Velie, the agent in charge, also acted instinctively as he lunged
forward to restrain Cantrell. But then he froze, as did all the men in
the room, to stare.

It was not what the prisoner did; it was what he did not do. There was
absolutely no reaction to the blow--no reaction physically, emotionally,
or mentally. It was as though the blow had not been struck; as though
this were some kind of a moving, breathing zombie.

So tangible, so seemingly sourceless was this feeling of loathing, that
Hagen would have been sure it had affected only himself if he had not
seen its effect on the others.

Yet none of them referred to it. Nor was this strange, because there
just weren't any words to describe the feeling one gets from contact
with a pleasant-faced, quietly dressed example of the walking dead.

Backing away from this powerful emotional reaction, Hagen forced himself
onto an intellectual level, and asked himself what had brought about the
change in the creature. Why had it--Hagen now had to regard the strange,
walking enigma as neuter--after functioning to some extent as a human,
reverted suddenly to what seemed to be its natural state?

He conceded that if he knew the answer to that one, he could be of great
service to the FBI and the nation--and, no doubt to the world ...

Pender of the Army now had a question. "What information have you gotten
from the surviving man?"

"Not a great deal, as yet. However, in our experiments we've learned
something rather frightening."

"And what's that?"

"He is totally impervious to drugs of any description whatever."

"That's impossible!"

"So it would seem. Bu