Menace From Vega

[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.

The dark man said, "That's her. Pick her up."

As the four silent followers moved forward, Jim saw that the leader was watching them--he had taken his eyes off Jim himself.

Lawrence reached out and made a grab for the gun--but the dark man was a move ahead of him. He moved away smoothly, whirled, and brought the gun down stunningly on Jim's head.

Jim threw a wild, wobbly punch at the man, and then the other four moved in on him. He fought back blindly for a few moments, but then a fist raked across his jaw, another smashed into his stomach, and the gun descended a second time. It caught him on the side of the head, and he sagged to the floor.

The thick padding was the last thing he felt before he blacked out.