[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy
June 1958
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The tall, darkly handsome man was grinning at Dr. James Lawrence from
the wrong side of a gun.
"Don't do anything foolish," the stranger said.
The psychiatrist swallowed and looked at the muzzle of the weapon. The
gun didn't look like any he had ever seen before, but he had no doubt
that it was deadly.
"What do you want?" he asked. He had never faced a gun before, but he
found, oddly enough, that he wasn't at all frightened. There was simply
a tense expectancy, a feeling of what's-coming-next? and no more.
"You have a patient at this hospital named Bette Bauer?" It was half a
question, half a statement.
Jim Lawrence looked at the intruder without answering. He knew Bette
Bauer--a tall, beautiful brunette with deep grey-green eyes. There was
nothing behind those eyes. She had been in St. Paul's Neuropsychiatric
Hospital for three years--a schizophrenic catatonic, completely out of
touch with the real world.
"You're behaving childishly," said the man with the odd-looking gun,
softly. "All I have to do is look through your files. Where is she?"
Lawrence shrugged. "Ward 3, Room 41. Why do you want to know?" He
glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly midnight.
"It doesn't matter," the stranger said. "Come along. Lead us to where
she is confined."
Outside the office, there were four men. They held their hands in
their pockets as though there were guns there. Lawrence glanced from
one to another. They all looked somewhat alike, all with that same dark
slimness and hardness of feature.
"What do you want?" Lawrence demanded.
"Just take us to Bette Bauer," the leader said. "If you do not, you
will be shot." He smiled.
It was the sight of that smile that made Jim Lawrence realize the cold
dangerousness of the man.
"Very well," Jim said. "Come this way."
As he led them down the hall toward Ward 3, Jim wondered about these
men. What interest could they have in Bette Bauer? She had once been
a brilliant physicist, and had shown signs of actual genius. But
something had happened to her shortly after she had received her
doctor's degree in theoretical physics. Her mind had become unbalanced,
and she had been committed to St. Paul's Hospital.
As Chief Psychiatrist, Dr. James Lawrence had worked with her
regularly; he was deeply interested in the girl. But he had been
completely unable to break the dazed, trancelike state that she had
been in for the past three years.
What did these five men want with her? And who _were_ they, anyway?
There was something odd about them, even aside from the peculiar
gun that the leader carried. Their clothes seemed wrong, as though
they weren't used to wearing them; their speech was strange in some
undefinable way.
When they reached Ward 3, Jim Lawrence took the keys from his pocket
and unlocked the main door. A night nurse at the desk looked up and
smiled.
"Good evening, Dr. Lawrence," she said sweetly. Then she saw the men
behind him, and her eyebrows lifted.
"We want to see Bette Bauer," Jim said, keeping his voice even.
"Certainly, Doctor." She led the way down the corridor to Room 41.
It was a padded cell; with Dr. Bette Bauer, naked to prevent her
from harming herself with her clothing, lying on the floor, crooning
mindlessly, her grey-green eyes staring out into nothingness.