is head toward it, but there
was nothing there.

He heard his breath gasping harshly, and his knuckles whitened. There
was the taste of blood in the corner of his mouth where he was biting
his lips.

_Get out! They'll be here at once! Leave--GO!_

* * * * *

His hands were already fumbling with his under-clothing. He drew on
briefs jerkily, and grabbed for the shirt and suit he had never seen
before. He was no longer thinking, now. Blind panic was winning. He
thrust his feet into shoes, not bothering with socks.

A slip of paper fell from his coat, with big sprawled Greek letters.
He saw only the last line as it fell to the floor--some equation that
ended with an infinity sign. Then psi and alpha, connected by a dash.
The alpha sign had been scratched out, and something written over it.
He tried to reach it, and more papers spilled from his coat pocket.
The fear washed up more strongly. He forgot the papers. Even the
cigarettes were too far away for him to return to them. His wallet lay
on the chair, and he barely grabbed it before the urge overpowered him
completely.

The doorknob slipped in his sweating hands, but he managed to turn it.
The elevator wasn't at his floor, and he couldn't stop for it. His
feet pounded on the stairs, taking him down the three floors to the
street at a breakneck pace. The walls of the stairway seemed to be
rushing together, as if trying to close the way. He screamed at them,
until they were behind, and he was charging out of the front door.

A half-drunken couple was coming in--a fat, older man and a slim girl
he barely saw. He hit them, throwing them aside. He jerked from the
entrance. Cars were streaming down West End Avenue. He dashed across,
paying no attention to them. His rush carried him onto the opposite
sidewalk. Then, finally, the blind panic left him, and he was leaning
against a building, gasping for breath, and wondering whether his
heart could endure the next beat.

Across the street, the fat man he had hit was coming after him. Hawkes
gathered himself together to apologize, but the words never came. A
second blinding horror hit at him, and his eyes darted up towards the
windows of his apartment.

It was only a tiny glow, at first, like a drop from the heart of a
sun. Then, before he could more than blink, it spread, until the whole
apartment seemed to blaze. A gout of smoke poured from the shattering
window, and a dull concussion st