Read Online The Lost Perception by Daniel F. Galouye - Free Book Online

by going through the mill, as I did, are good risks—in business, politics, or what have you.”
    Or, again, in a more emotional appeal for votes: “We have this awful barrier we call the Screamies. On one side, like frightened sheep in a corral, we have the vast, miserable majority of the human race. On the other side—a handful of ex-Screamers. Isn’t it logical that those who have already successfully crossed the barrier should shoulder the burdens of preserving our conventional world, of supervising the continuity of our institutions?”
    Wellford broke into Gregson’s reflections. “I’ve just fed you some leading suggestions. I’d hoped you would sift through them and arrive at the same conclusions I did.”
    Annoyed at the other’s insistence, Gregson looked away. “They went over my head.”
    Wellford came directly to his point. “Why should ex-Screamers be prime targets for assassination by the Valorian-human cells?”
    Displaying a critical frown, Gregson said, “Your suggestions apparently went over your own head too. If the Valorians are hellbent on conquest, they can advance their cause best by sowing confusion, by knocking off authority wherever they find it.”
*  *  *
    The auditorium had finally filled and Radcliff strode back onstage, the determined thuds of his heels gaveling order among the assembly. He mounted the dais and stared out at his special agents.
    “Our purpose here,” he said in a firm, powerful voice, “is one of enlightenment. I am most gratified to say that we have learned all we need to know to map our campaign against the Valorians.”
    Here and there a turbaned Oriental or robed African aimed a translingual pickup horn at the stage.
    “We shall be as brief as possible,” the director went on. “First, you have all received fact sheets on the Gregson contact in Pennsylvania. After I am through, I shall call him up here for a question and answer session so that you may wring him dry of any details that might strike you as being especially important.
    “In connection with Gregson’s experience, I must say that he has contributed as much to our understanding of the alien threat as anyone among us. He has suggested that the large cities, our centers of authority, are not the proper places to search for Valorians, although they will occasionally show up there on aggressive missions.”
    There was a noise behind the curtain. Annoyed, he glanced over his shoulder and cleared his throat.
    “Now let’s consider the experience of another of our agents—Eric Friedmann in Bavaria. Friedmann?”
    A tall, slender Nordic stood up in the rear of the auditorium.
    “Since we have not yet distributed a fact sheet on your encounter,” Radcliff proposed, “suppose you tell us briefly what happened.”
    The man spoke gutturally, tersely. “We received a spot report from Security Bureau Air Transport on a Sunburst plane that had been observed landing south of Munich. We arrived in time to see its occupants drive off in a car. We chased them. But they turned off the road and drove across a field of weeds. When we tried to follow, we learned that the field was filled with stumps. We wrecked our car.”
    “Yet, the Valorians got through the field without difficulty?”
    “Yes.” The German sat down.
    Radcliff took a sip of water. “Back to Gregson in New York. You should all be familiar with the fact sheet on his experiences in the Manhattan alley. He reported that, in struggling with the alien, he accidentally injected himself with his own hypo.”
    The director paused, then said, “Gentlemen, I propose that the Valorian car Friedmann was following didn’t actually turn off the road. He only imagined it did. And I further suggest that Gregson didn’t struggle with the alien in the alley. Rather, the Valorian caused Gregson to imagine the struggle and to inject himself.”
*  *  *
    Against a general murmur of surprise, Wellford whispered, “I’ll be damned!”
    “For you