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A touch of strange, he thought, but more than a touch of strange. Rather a brush against something that he could not understand, that no human might be able to understand. A touch that was composed of the coldness and the vastness of deep space, of the glare of distant suns, of dark planets that were unlike the Earth, and the incomprehensibility of a life that had been spawned in the darkness of those planets. As if he had been hurled into a place that he did not know and perhaps could never know, that he could not even begin to know no matter how long a time he spent there. Incomprehensibility, that was it, he thought.
And, yet, the damn thing looked so ordinary, was so unspectacular, an almost old shoe structure.
He backed away from it, staring up at the great black wall of it that rose so high above him. And the hell of it was, he found, that he wanted once again to step close to it and lay his hand against it so that he again could feel the warmness of it, and perhaps the chill as well.
But he did not step closer to it, did not lay his hand against it. He backed a few steps away from it, then turned around and hurried back the way that he had come. Not ru
Out on the highway and clear of the visitor, he saw that several other cars had stopped and the cluster of people standing in the road had grown. He did not see the man who had followed him. Even had he seen him, he would not have recognized him, for he had caught only that one, quick, over-the-shoulder glimpse of him.
One man stepped out of the cluster to intercept him as he
came down the road. "What did you see?" the man asked. "Is
there anything going on?"
"Why don't you go and look?" Garrison asked him brusquely,
brushing swiftly past him.
It was strange, Garrison thought, that there was so little panic. If there was fear, it was being hidden. What was it about the visitors that seemed to inspire no fear? Maybe it was because the big black box had so few alien co
His car was standing with the headlights burning and the engine ru
Gold answered, his voice slightly flustered, on the second ring.
"I am glad you called," he said. "I was tempted to call you, but
hesitated, because I thought you'd be asleep."
"Why should you be calling me?"
"Well, another visitor has landed. Right in our lap this time. It's sitting on one of the runways at the airport."
"That's only half of it," said Garrison. "There's a second one. Came down on Highway 12, about a mile east of Ridgedale shopping center. It's blocking off the road."
"You there now?"
"That's right. It landed half a mile or so ahead of me. I better come on in. These may not be the only landings in the area. You have someone you can send out to keep an eye on this one?"
"I don't know. I'll look around. Jay was still here, so I sent him to the airport. Have a photographer out there as well."
"What's happening at the airport?"
"Not much, so far. The visitor is roosting out there, not bothering anyone, but the men in the tower are up tight. Not much air traffic out there now, but it'll pick up in a few hours. The visitor being there means there's one less runway to handle the planes."
"Anything on the wires? Any other landings in other places?"
"Fragmentary reports. Nothing solid. Nothing confirmed. Someone in Texas phoned the police to report one down. Another report from New Jersey. Simple reports of sightings, nothing official yet."
"I'm afraid the swarm that was in orbit out there is begi
"Look, Joh
"No. If need be, I can go down to medical service and stretch out on a cot, get a few hours sleep later on. Any word from Kathy?"
"None. Why would you expect her to be calling? She's probably been asleep for hours."
"I think when she does phone, we should call her in. The Lone Pine thing is finished. The action will be down here so far as we are concerned. Anything happen at Lone Pine, Norton can fill us
in. We need Kathy. She's the one who knows about these things."
"O.K. I'll tell her if she calls."
"I'll see you in a while," said Garrison.
He hung up, fished in his pocket for another dime, inserted it in the slot and dialed.
Jane answered. "Joh
"I started out," he said, "then something happened."
"And you aren't coming?"
"Not for a while. One of the visitors landed on the road just ahead of me. I have to get back to the office. Jim tells me another one landed at the airport."
"You mean one landed on Highway 12?" "That's right. Just east of Ridgedale." "Joh