“You’re just about the most important person in the world now, Rob,” General Forester said, “and so I thought I’d come for you personally.” His narrow brown mustache thinned to a pencil line as he continued to smile welcomingly.
Rob felt a disturbing jolt within him as he heard the general’s words. What significance lay behind this remark?
“I’m flattered, sir,” Rob said.
“You shouldn’t be,” the general said brusquely, in a strange reversal of manner. It was odd how quickly his sunny expression became grim. “I’m afraid we’re more interested in you for what you can do for us—and Earth—than in your personality.”
Rob felt the uneasy tightening of the noose of suspense. He felt suddenly naked and alone, his confidence shaky. He wanted to ask why he had been chosen to take on an apparently enormous task. The general anticipated him.
“We picked you, Rob, for this biggest of all jobs because you’ve been through all the terror and suspense that the project might entail. Your reputation for courage has caught up with you, Rob, and we’re going to use it for all it’s worth!”
Rob felt his pulse throbbing in his temples as the jeep scurried over the sand dunes toward Space Command headquarters. While his heart could scarcely contain his excitement, his mind was equally frantic for facts. “What is the job, sir?” he asked quietly.
“You’ve noticed, of course, the suppressed terror of the people back home in the past weeks,” the general said. “They know something big is wrong, that their very lives are being menaced. How they found out I don’t know, because the strictest censorship has been held. Maybe it’s a sort of telepathic hysteria that can’t be censored. At any rate it’s there, and there’s already been trouble from it. The Command at home has been getting crank letters demanding that we tell the people what is wrong. This kind of thing can lead to something bad.”
“Then something is wrong?” Rob ventured, watching the officer expertly avoid a treacherous crack in the frost-riven ground.
The general’s face became haggard, and there was a trace of terror in his own eyes. “There is. Something even worse than the people must suspect.”