"Chuck—Dad's out of his mind!"
"I've known that a long time," I said.
"No—I don't mean that way. He's really insane, Chuck. You know that he's been in contact with these Invaders? That he deliberately brought them here!"
"No!"
She nodded. "He reached them through some short-wave transmitter of his, and made mental contact with them. They showed him how to build the Gateway—and he let them through! They promised to give him the world, when they get through with it!"
I clenched my fists and stared angrily at the cloud-swept sky. "The madman! He was getting his revenge for the years people laughed at him, I guess. But—what's to happen to us?"
"I don't know. The creatures won't harm him, and they're under orders not to touch me unless I leave his protection—which I have. But as for you and the rest of the world, I don't think Daddy cares at all. Chuck, he's out of his head!"
"We've got to stop him," I said grimly. "We've got to close that gateway and drive off the things he's let through. But how?"
"The generator's in his basement," Laura said. "If we could get in there and smash it, somehow, and—"
"How would we kill the Invaders that have already come through? There must be thousands of them!"