Image:
Nonono. Fire. Flame. Gun. Fearhateterrorlove.
**Radcliffe, I am the creature.**
No! Dead. You're not--I hate you--gone. Disbelief. Hate. No fear.
Forgetfulness. Block. Withdrawal.
**Radcliffe.**
Me.
**I'm the melting walls.**
Terror? Uncertainty. Indecision. Realization. Contemptpityscorn. Sharp
mental block. Withdrawal.
**Radcliffe.**
Me.
**I'm the teddy bear.** (This was, he thought, Radcliffe's wife-image.)
Indecision. Realization. Withdrawal. Blank.
**Radcliffe, I'm the hole in the air.**
But Keller's reply was cut short by a cry of terror in his brain.
**RICK!**
It was Sally.
* * * * *
Keller went down immediately.
**What?** No response. **WHAT?** Still no response. Then he could hear
her cry--fading in depth--now dying--gone.
**Radcliffe.**
Mememe.
**Sally.**
Memeususwetwowetwo....
It had happened. Sally was trapped in his preconscious, absorbed by
his dominating mind block. Gone.
Forever.
Determination, savage and enraged. A desperate shot in the dark:
**RADCLIFFE!**
Mememememememe....
**Radcliffe, I am the MAN WHO FLEW.**
Nononono. Fear. Terror. Hate. Block. Withdrawal, but incomplete....
Coming out of his Probe, Keller saw the result of his last implanted
thought: Radcliffe, now in a tight fetal ball, lay on the floor.
His face was absolutely devoid of expression. His conscious mind was a
constant _gobble-gobble-gobble_.
Keller entered the next room, to find Sally sprawled limply across
her desk. Mindless, soulless, as if she had never had a mind or
soul--Keller lifted her tenderly onto the floor and chose the most
merciful way out, disintegrating her body with an atomic gun from the
closet.
Then, again, the Probe....
**Radcliffe.**
Mememe.
**I'm Sally.**
Nonono. (Gloating.) Gonegonegone.
**Radcliffe, _where's Sally_?**
Gone. Satisfaction. Triumph. Laughter. Delirious happiness.
**Radcliffe, I'm everything. I'm the creature. The snake, THE MAN WHO
FLEW, the hole in the air, the flames, everything you've hated, feared
and dreaded.**
Withdrawal. Thunderbolt! More and more now.
Frantically, Keller defended himself, throwing up block after block,
only to have it torn down by the ever-spreading bolts of pure mental
energy. Finally he withdrew into his own body in haste, realizing that
Radcliffe's conquest would mean his revival.
* * * * *
When he opened his eyes, Radcliffe was sitting in the chair, yawning.
Probably, Keller thought, he had no knowledge of his fetal state. Good.
"Well, Radcliffe," he said, "I need only one more thing to complete the
picture. Now focus again on 11:17 last night, when you found your wife
dead on the floor."
Image:
Fear. Terror. Anxiety. Nonono. Hole in the air. THE MAN WHO FLEW. Pain.
Withdrawal. Complete mental block.
With a shock, Keller realized that in seven hours Radcliffe had been
turned into an A-3--just below Keller--thanks to ... Sally.
He analyzed the symbols. Impressions: No teddy bear (no real concern
for the wife, then). No creature (no more unknown fears). No snake or
demon or flames, signifying evil and terror. Just the hole in the air
and the man who flew.
Strange ... he realized that meant one thing--he had to go down one
last final time--to end it all....
**Radcliffe.**
Me.
**Radcliffe, who is Sally?**
Memeusususwetwowetwo.
**Shut up! Radcliffe, I know who killed your wife.**
Terror. Shock. Ordeal. Decision. Determination. Yes. We hear you.
**THE MAN WHO FLEW RADCLIFFE! THE MAN WHO FLEW KILLED YOUR WIFE. THE
HOLE IN THE AIR IS WHAT YOU SENSED--THE VACUUM THAT HE LEFT WHEN HE
TELEPORTED HIMSELF OUT OF THE MELTING WALLS ARE, RADCLIFFE. THE WALLS
THAT COULDN'T HOLD THE MAN WHO FLEW--THE MAN WHO KILLED YOUR WIFE.**