“What do you mean?” Frobisher asked sharply.
“Just humble before wonders of science,” da Silva told him.
Frobisher nodded. “You’re right,” he said. “Who knows but what the message now being beamed, with its appeal for help from a war-threatened and deluded humanity, may some day or century be received by a truly mature and benign race, which will swiftly come to our aid? By the by, Mr. Gish, watch that railing. It’s broken.”
Phil jerked his hand away from the rusted pipe. “Yes,” he said to Frobisher, “but how do these thought waves originate at the focus?”
“Just look,” Frobisher told him. Phil squintingly studied the gleaming saucer through his dark glasses and it became less of a jumble of highlights. Projecting from a hole in the center of the bowl was a brownish-red blob wearing goggles that looked as if they were made of a darker glass than his own specs. The blob’s lips moved and Phil heard a hauntingly familiar voice saying, of all things, “S-O-S, earth. S-O-S, earth.”
“Our star esper,” Frobisher chortled, “if you’ll pardon a pun of which we’re rather fond. To be sure, it’s thought waves, not sound waves, he’s originating, but it helps him esp if he says the message at the same time he thinks of it. He’s a bit of an eccentric – a religious scholar – but that’s the case with most of our best people.”
At that moment Phil’s vision, buffered by the dark glasses, became quite clear and he saw that the sweating head at the focus of the parabolic mirror was that of Sacheverell Akeley. At the same moment Sacheverell saw Phil and his sunburned top disappeared from the saucer as swiftly as a hand puppet jerked below stage.
“He shouldn’t do that,” Frobisher said sharply. “There’s at least twenty minutes of his duty remaining. Well, I presume you’ve seen all you’ll need for your articles, gentlemen, so we’d best go down.”
As Phil’s foot touched the roof, Sacheverell Akeley darted up to him, sweat pouring off his ruddy-bronze forehead.
“What are you doing here?” Phil asked sharply. “How did you get away from them – Romadka’s friends, I mean.”
“They raced off a couple of hours after Romadka left,” Sacheverell answered quickly. “Got a phone call. Incidentally, Romadka abducted three of our cats. As for me, I’ve worked here for ages. The important point is,” he continued in an intense whisper, “thathe’s here, isn’t he? I mean the Green One. I’ve never esped like this before, even at stars.”
But before Phil could answer, Frobisher and da Silva glanced at them inquisitively. Phil and Sacheverell followed them down the metal staircase.
Reaching the top floor they found Opperly deep in conversation with a man who looked at least half out of this world. He was fat and had a beard, but his dull eyes seemed to be seeing twice as much as he was looking at. Sacheverell tugged at Phil’s sleeve guardedly. “Garnett’s frightfully espy,” he whispered, his lips next to Phil’s ear.
“But Winnie, how do you explain it?” Opperly was saying. “Why all this success with esping, in practically all your projects, all of a sudden?”
Garnett frowned. “Well, there is one unusual circumstance. Our lab technicians claim to have found hormones, or some sort of specialized protein molecules floating around in the air.”
“What hormones?” Opperly asked quickly.
“Well,” Garnett said, “they have had some difficulty identifying them.” He hesitated. “The hormones seem to show a tremendous variability – almost chameleon-like.”
Opperly smiled and threw Phil a twinkling gaze.
“Winnie, do you by any chance know,” Opperly said, “whether an odd animal of some sort appeared at the Foundation early this morning?”
Phil felt Sacheverell’s hand tighten on his biceps.
Dr. Garnett looked around puzzledly. Then his eyebrows shot up. “Yes,” he said, “Ginny Ames found a green cat, a fashion mutant, I suppose, wailing at the door early this morning. We don’t have much food here, but she tried it on some elderberry preserves and apparently it liked it. I believe the creature’s still around.”
“Winnie, don’t you get any bulletins from Security?” Opperly asked incredulously “Or from the FBL?”
Garnett shook his big head. “Not for the past ten years. Esp’s so unpopular that even the government’s forgot us.”
“I see,” Opperly said, his eyes glittering with interest. “In that case you haven’t read anything about a mutant creature described as a green cat, that’s believed to have super-human parapsychological powers and to have caused officials to go over to Russia and do all sorts of other things described as crazy? The public hasn’t been told, but all the higher echelons – scientists, doctors, psychiatrists – have been getting bulletins on the subject, demanding that they report anything they know or have heard about a green cat. Even I’ve been told a little.”
“Can you beat it,” Garnett said disgustedly, “something involving esp and they consult everyone but us.” Then he turned to Opperly like a man waking up. “Do you mean to suggest that this creature is responsible for the esp results we’ve been getting?”
Opperly nodded. “I do.”
“But how, why?”
Opperly shrugged happily. “I don’t know. I’ve merely been making some of those farfetched guesses I’ve warned my young journalist friends about.” And he smiled at Phil and da Silva.
“Guesses!” Garnett said. “Well, we’ll soon find out.” And he started past them toward the front end of the hall, his big feet stirring dust from the ancient carpet. “We’ll have a look at this animal and see what we think about it. Miss Ames -!” he started to call, and then suddenly his face went half out of this world again and he stopped in midstride. “She thinks the same,” he said softly and so astonishedly that even Phil knew he must be esping. “She agrees with you, Op.” The big face seemed to go a little further out of the world. “In fact, they all do. Practically everybody at the Foundation.” The big face seemed to go out almost all the way, while the voice sank to a faint murmur. “In fact, you’re right.”
The door opened at the front end of the hall and a long nosed young lady in a lab smock stepped out and nodded gently at Garnett. Her brow smoothed and her eyes half closed, as if she were esping something to him, then she seemed to notice that there were visitors around. “Would you care to see this green animal with your outer eyes?” she asked.
“We sure would, Ginny,” Garnett told her and started forward again. Phil wanted to burst out with all his information about Lucky, but da Silva forestalled him.
“Gentlemen,” he said. “Think you understand better I supposed. Sorry underrate you. Best to tell you now -”
At that moment Lucky ambled out of the door from which Ginny had emerged. He strode lazily, like a self-confident green god. The long nosed girl closed the door behind him. Phil felt his spirits splurge suddenly, happily, familiarly.
Akeley squeezed Phil’s upper arm. “It ishe!”
And almost at the same moment, a voice commanded from behind them, “Break to either side, everybody.”
Phil obeyed the command and so did all the others.
Dave Greeley was standing at the head of the stairs. The representative of the FBL was looking both knowledgeable and competent, though even more gray haired and anxious than last night.
He nodded quickly at Opperly, said, “Pardon me, doctor,” then leveled his stun-gun between the ranks of men crowding the wail and punched the trigger. But his nerves couldn’t have been as good as Phil thought they were, for instead of the green cat collapsing, Miss Ames pitched over on her face, gasping wonderingly, “My leg – I can’t feel it!”
Greeley grimaced and re-directed his stun-gun, as the dust mushroomed up from the carpet around Miss Ames. But at the same moment Phil felt the golden wave billowing out from Lucky. Greeley ’s face turned red and his fingers stiffly uncurled from the gun, as if invisible hands were prying them away, and it dropped to the floor.