"Like us," said Garrison.

"That's right. Like us."

"We'll need coverage of state and federal agencies," said Garrison. "Anyone or any agency that can be possibly involved. Williams is our man to contact the local FBI. No one is going to get much out of the FBI, but Williams will come closer than any other man. He seems to get along with them."

"Campbell, maybe, could tackle some of the people at the university," said Gold. "Physicists, psychologists, engineers, aeronautic people. They might be able to give some insight on what is going on. Maybe some of the sociologists and psychologists may be able to make some sort of an assessment on what the public impact will be. And we can't forget the churches. Will this business have any impact on religious thinking?"

"We'll have to pick our sources carefully," said Garrison. "Some of these churchmen are inclined to shoot off their mouths in all directions and endlessly and without thought on any given subject."

"Roberts might be the man for that," said Gold.

The phone rang and Garrison picked it up.

Kathy's voice asked, "Is that you, Johnny? What are you doing there this time of night?"

"We have some of your visitors down here. How about yourself? We talked about phoning you, but figured you were asleep."

"I was, but Stuffy came pounding at the door and woke me up." "Stuffy?"

"That old man who took the call and held the phone for me." "Now I remember. Why should he be pounding at your door?" "He was sleeping off a drunk and woke up and saw them." "Them?"

"More of the visitors. A dozen or so of them, all coming in a bunch. They landed across the river, in the wilderness area. They're lined up abreast, mowing down the trees and turning out cellulose."

"But Stuffy.

"I gave him five dollars for holding the phone. Chet gave him a quart of booze. We've bought the man for life."

"We need you and Chet down here, Kathy. I think there's an early morning plane out of Bemidji. Can you manage it?"

"It doesn't leave until six or so. Plenty of time. Even time to go out and have a closer look at these new visitors. Stuffy's pounding Chet awake right now.

"Okay. Whatever you can manage. But don't miss that plane. All hell is set to let loose down here."

"I should give Stuffy another five."

"Give him ten," said Garrison. "Norton can keep an eye on things up there for us and Stuffy maybe can do some legwork for him."

23. THE UNITED STATES

People woke and turned on their radios to learn what kind of weather they might expect that day. There was no weather news; instead a running commentary, half news, half wonder and speculation, spewed out of the sets.

The people listened, prickled by the first faint touch of fear. The Minnesota visitor had been a novelty, an event that brought twinges of excitement and well-hidden apprehension, but there had been only one of them. It had stayed for a time and then had flown off and, except for the young that it had spawned, that had been the end of it. But now, suddenly, a horde of the things had descended on the Earth. Well-behaved, of course, not really causing trouble, but posing an uneasy wonder as to what kind of things they were, what they might expect of Earth.

The people went about their work, but all day long they met other people who were prone to stop and talk about the wonder of the visitors. Throughout the day, the uneasiness kept growing as rumor piled on rumor, as speculation grew, with each speculation adding to the sense of uneasiness and, at times, the sense of fear. Little work was done.

An Iowa farmer, not bothering to turn on his radio, went out in the early dawn to do the morning chores and was stopped in his tracks by the sight of the huge black box that was sitting in his cornfield. He hurried back into the house and came out again armed with a twelve-gauge shotgun, his jacket pocket sagging with a handful of shells. Riding a small farm tractor, he went to the cornfield and parked outside the fence that enclosed the field. Climbing from the tractor, he crawled through the fence and walked toward the visitor. It made no sign that it noticed his approach. Cautiously, he made his way around it. Apparently, it was doing nothing; it was only sitting there. Twice he raised the gun, his finger on the trigger; each time he decided not to shoot. There Was no way of telling, he reminded himself, what it might do if he shot at it. Finally, having circled it, he climbed through the fence, clambered on the tractor and went back to the morning chores.

Looking to his left, the airliner pilot spotted the visitor several miles away. He reached out a hand and nudged the man sitting next to him. "Look over there," he said. The other looked. "It's paralleling us," he said. "I thought all of them were down," the pilot said. "Sitting on the ground." They continued to watch it. It continued on course with them, matching their speed, moving no nearer or no farther off.

A man stood on a street corner in a ghetto area and raised his arms above his head. He bellowed to the others in the street. "Our brothers out of space," he howled, "have come to rescue us. They're dropping down to confront those who hold us in our bondage. Let us rejoice, brothers, for help has finally come." The people gathered to listen to his mad ranting, grinning or scowling as the words might strike them, but not believing him, for these people of the street believed no one at all, but sensing in him a primitive excitement that stirred in them a savage anger at their hopelessness. An hour later, there was looting and burning in the area.

In one New England village, someone (never identified) went into a church and began ringing the bell. Curious people came to learn why the bell was ringing. And to many of them, it seemed good to be there, proper to be there when visitors had come upon the Earth. So they went into the church and the minister, hurrying from the parsonage, found them there. To him, as well, it seemed proper that they should be there, so he led them in prayer. In other villages, other church bells rang and other people came to be led in prayer. Across the land suddenly God-stricken people flocked to church.

National guardsmen cordoned off the visitors that were sitting on the ground. Highway patrolmen worked to keep traffic moving as thousands of sightseers converged upon the sites where the visitors were sitting. And in some scattered places visitors, floating easily along, only a few hundred feet above the ground, patrolled the highways. Motorists stopped their cars to get out and gape and tangled traffic jams resulted. There were many accidents.

24. WASHINGTON, D.C

Winston Mallory, Secretary of Defense, said to the President, "Whiteside thinks we should run a test of how these things react to firepower. Under the circumstances, I recommend that we should turn him loose. It didn't make much sense when there was only one of them, but now that they've invaded.

"I object to your use of the term ‘invasion' for what is happening," said the Secretary of State. "A fair number of them have landed, but there has been no violence. They're not killing our citizens, they're not burning our cities."

William Sullivan, Secretary of Interior, said, "They chewed up a housing development across the Potomac. One of them gobbled up a lumberyard out on the West Coast. They're eating our forests in Michigan, in Maine, in Minnesota, in Washington and Oregon.

"But they haven't killed anyone," said State. "The only thing they've done is steal a little cellulose. They haven't.

"Just a minute, Marcus," said the President. "I want to hear more about this weapons test. What does Whiteside propose to do? Open up on them with tanks?"