Руди Рюкер - Master Of Space And Time

Just then I heard the sound I'd been half waiting for. A police siren.

"Nancy, I think that might be the slugs coming to get us. We better run."

"That's just the police, Joe."

"But they might have been taken over by Garybrains. Quick, let's head for the woods."

"There's bugs in there, Joe, and snakes."

"Please." The siren was drawing closer.

"Oh, all right."

I picked up Serena, and we ran for the woods.

Thick and viny, the woods came right up to the edge of our housing development. It was kind of swampy in there, and the built-up land the tract houses were on sloped down at the edge. We slid down the slope and stared back at our house.

Sure enough, a motorcycle and two squad cars with flashing lights were pulling right into our driveway. Five cops with riot guns — they all had round shoulders. Serena started to ask a question; Nancy stuffed another fritter in her mouth. We crouched lower, barely daring to watch.

Bang, bang, bang. Pounding our door. One of the cops circled around to our backyard and noticed the kitchen door open. He went right in and opened the front. They stomped around in there for a while, shouting my name. I wondered if they'd gotten Harry yet. This was bad, this was very bad.

"You think they have those brains on their backs?" whispered Nancy.

"Yeah."

"What can we do?"

"Shhhhh."

One of the police cars was driving around on the grass now, shining its lights this way and that. We pressed ourselves down into the underbrush. Serena started to whimper. I got my mouth against her and whispered to her. "Be quiet, honey. The bad men are after us. Be quiet like Mommy and Daddy. Real quiet."

She obeyed. The police tried pounding on some of our neighbors' doors. No one knew where we were. An hour went by before they finally gave up. The cop with the motorcycle stayed in our house and the others all left.

"Why don't you shoot him through the window," suggested Nancy. She'd noticed my flare ray.

"Killing a cop is a pretty serious crime. If people don't understand about the Gary-brains, I could end up in jail."

"Couldn't you focus it to just kill the slug? I don't want to stay in the woods all night. The mosquitoes are eating me alive."

A plan occurred to me. "Okay, Nancy, let's try this."

A few minutes later we were at our back door. Nancy laid the sleeping Serena down under a porkchop bush. I peered in the kitchen window. There was a tired cop with a sawed-off shotgun in his lap. He had a big bump on his back under his police shirt, and he was staring blankly at the front door.

"Excuse me," I said, walking right in. "We'd better have a conference." Nancy had stuffed a lot of leaves under my shirt, so it looked as if I too had a spine-rider.

The policeman whirled and started to raise his gun.

"Take it easy," I said, smiling and walking forward. "I got my Gary-brain already." I would have been scared to chance this if I hadn't known that Nancy was right outside the window with our flare ray aimed at the cop's head. "Come on, slide your shirt up and we'll let the masters talk."

The policeman nodded and began pulling his shirt up. He had to set his gun down to do it. I came closer, pulling at my own shirt. Now the cop's back was exposed, a big, strong back with the parasitic brain nestled between the shoulder blades. I made my move.

With one swift gesture, I slid my hand up under the brain, caught hold of the soft probes where they sank into the policeman's spine, and ripped the thing free. The policeman screamed and slumped forward. The loose Gary-brain twisted and tried to sink its tendrils into my arm. Surprisingly strong, it was more than just a brain; it had muscles. I tried to fling it across the room, but couldn't get it free of my arm. It began slithering up toward my shoulder and I cried for help.

Then Nancy was in the kitchen with me. Aiming carefully, she sizzled the Gary-brain with our flare ray. It released its grip on me and fell to the floor.

"Is he going to be all right?" Nancy asked, jerking her head at the policeman. There was a raw, bloody patch on his naked back.

"I don't know." I got some water and poured it over the man's head.

He moaned a little and then sat up. "What happened?"

"You've been under the control of a mindparasite. How did it happen?"

"I–I haven't been myself. We were chasing a gray car, and when we stopped it, Muldoon started acting funny. He stuck his head into the gray car and something happened to him. I went over to see, and the — it got me." The man broke off to stare at the dead brain on the floor. "It was one of those. They kept splitting and getting more and more of us. They must have everyone down at the station house by now. Are you Joseph Fletcher?"

"That's right. They're after me and Harry Gerber, I think."

"Gerber, yeah. Some other guys went off after him. What are we going to do, Mr. Fletcher?"

"If I can think of a way to get to Gerber, I can fix the whole thing. Right now I'm going to hide. Meanwhile, why don't you go to the state police, officer? The parasites can't have spread very far yet. Go get in touch with some higher-ups."

"But what shall I tell them?"

"We're being invaded by an alien life form. If they don't believe you, show them your back and this dead spine-rider. We don't have a minute to lose."

The policeman sped off on his motorcycle. I filled a shopping bag with money from under the bed and locked up the house. Then Nancy and Serena and I got in the Buick and took off. The main thing I wanted right now was a chance to sleep.

14. Wanted

I woke to the sound of Nancy's and Serena's voices. We were parked on a back road some fifteen miles south of Princeton. It was as far as we'd been able to come last night before falling asleep. Fortunately I'd remembered to throw some seeds out the window before dropping off, so there was a nice little stand of porkchop bushes and fritter trees right by the car. Nancy and Serena were having breakfast. I joined them.

"How much money did you bring?" Nancy asked.

"A few hundred thousand at least. Whatever's in that bag I put in the trunk. These fritters are really good."

"They sure are. If it wasn't for the Herberbrains everything would be perfect."

"Let's see how it's going." I turned on the radio.

"… invasion," intoned a drunk-sounding news-caster. "New Brunswick has been cordoned off, with reports of alien activity in some of the surrounding areas. An unconfirmed report states that the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in central Manhattan has been taken over by the aliens. One of the most effective weapons against them seems to be good old-fashioned alcohol. These brainlike creatures are extremely susceptible to alcohol poisoning, and all soldiers in the cordon have been put on double-grog rations. Any listeners who are near the combat zone are advised to remain intoxicated for the duration. I certainly am. Annie?"

"Thank you, Greg. Bottoms up. First reports of the invasion began trickling in last night in the wee morning hours. A number of police officers have fallen under the control of the parasites who call themselves Herberites. Their objectives at this time remain unclear, although some of the individuals under alien control have spoken of converting people to God's Laws. There is no question that these organisms are extraterrestrial in origin, although …"

I turned the radio back down. "Sounds like things won't get out of control. I hadn't realized that Gary is that allergic to alcohol."

"Do you think that people are going to blame you and Harry?" asked Nancy.

"Well, the brains are all thinking about us. So anyone who recovers — like that cop last night — is going to know we did it. Yeah, we're going to get blamed." I turned the radio back up for a minute.