"What do you mean you can't?"
"It won't let me. Somehow it can sense our thoughts when we think
something it doesn't want. I can't take it to Venus! No man could,
because it doesn't want to go."
"My dear Mr. Whitney--do you mean to say you believe it can _think_?"
"Uh-uh. Didn't say that. It can sense our thoughts, and that's something
else again."
Dr. Jamison threw his hands up over his head in a dramatic gesture.
"It's hopeless," he said.
* * * * *
Things grew worse. New York crawled along to a standstill. People began
to move from the city. In trickles, at first, but the trickles became
torrents, as New York's ten million people began to depart for saner
places. It might take months--it might even take years, but the exodus
had begun. Nothing could stop it. Because of a harmless little beast
with the eyes of a tarsier, the life of a great city was coming to an
end.
Word spread. Scientists all over the world studied reports on Black
Eyes. No one had any ideas. Everyone was stumped. Black Eyes had no
particular desire to go outside. Black Eyes merely remained in the
Whitney house, contemplating nothing in particular, and stopping
everything.
Dr. Jamison, however, was a persistent man. Judd got a letter from him
one day, and the following afternoon he kept his appointment with the
scientist.
"It's good to get out," Judd said, after a three hour walk to the
Department of Science Building. "I can go crazy just staring at that
thing."
"I have it, Whitney."
"You have what? Not the way to destroy Black Eyes? I don't believe it!"
"It's true. Consider. Everyone in the world does not yet know of your
pet, correct?"
"I suppose there are a few people who don't--"
"There are many. Among them, are the crew of a jet-bomber which has been
on maneuvers in Egypt. We have arranged everything."
"Yes? How?"
"At noon tomorrow, the bomber will appear over your home with one of
the ancient, high-explosive missiles. Your neighbors will be removed
from the vicinity, and, precisely at twelve-o-three in the afternoon,
the bomb will be dropped. Your home will be destroyed. Black Eyes will
be destroyed with it."