"It was Daddy's experiment," Laura half-sobbed. "It—it worked!"
"The old crackpot," I said. "The dimensional gulf—at last? I wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't nearly fallen into it!"
She nodded. "I saw you staggering around out there. I got out front just in time to—to—"
I held her tight against me, while she unloaded some of her anxiety. She sobbed for a minute or two, not trying to say anything. I looked uneasily out the window. Yes, it was still going on.
Right in front of Abel Harwood's house, the vortex was open—and coming up through it were what we later knew as the Invaders. Globes of light, radiant and intangible, floating up out of nowhere and ringing themselves in the air like so many loathsome jellyfish.
"Why doesn't he close it?" I asked. "Those things are still coming through! Laura, where's your father?"
"I'm right here," said a cold, business-like voice from behind me. I turned and saw Abel Harwood's husky frame in the door. "What do you want of me?" Harwood asked.
"Do you see what's going on out there?"
He nodded. "So?"
"Those things out there—what are they? What are you letting into the world, Harwood?"