"I said, how does she know it?" Never had the controller's heavy-lidded eyes seemed colder, the bulky body less yielding. And then, as I groped: "To the best of my knowledge, no human has ever communicated with the Kel. We don't even know what they look like. Consequently, I find it difficult to accept the concept of alien infiltration as a practical threat, in the face of our warning net and proved defensive measures."
"But they're shape-changers!" Involuntarily, my hands moved in frantic, pleading gestures. "They can simulate men. It's only the conditioned consistency of human behavior that's baffled them—"
Kruze's great head moved. "Guards, I'm tired of listening to this nonsense."
"Yes, Controller."—This from the thin man. As one, he and his companion closed in.
"Kruze, for the sake of all of us, the whole human race! What does it matter what the Kel look like? We've seen their globeships. We know what happened at Bejak II, at Corrigar, at Astole—"
Hands seized my arms; wrestled me backward.
"Please, Kruze! You've got to listen!"
Nerveless and unrelenting as a granite monolith, Controller Alfred Kruze turned on his heel, stepped back into the room from which he'd come, and closed the door behind him.
The bottom seemed to fall out of my stomach. For an instant I thought I was going to faint.
Gaylord speaking: "Take him down to the detention room. I'll file charges in the morning."