"It will take power," she said. "Tremendous power. I wonder if the Engineers can supply it.”
"They have magnetic power," said Gary. "They ought to be able to give you all you need.”
The old man's eyes were twinkling. "I am remembering the Hellhounds," he said. "The ones who would have the universe destroyed. I cannot seem to like them. It seems to me that something should be done about them.”
"But what?" asked Gary. "They seem to be all-powerful. By the time we get back they may have battered the city into a mass of ruins.”
The oldster nodded almost sleepily, but his eyes were glowing.
"We have had ones like that in our history," he said. "Ones who overrode the nations and imposed their will, standing in the way of progress. But always someone found something that would break them. Someone found a greater weapon or a greater strength and they went their way. Their names and works were dust and they were forgotten and the civilization that they sought to mold to their own selfish ends went on as if they had never been.”
"But I don't see…" began Gary, and then suddenly he did — as clearly as light. He smote his knee and yelled his enthusiasm.
"Of course," he cried. "We have a weapon. A weapon that could wipe them out. The fifth-dimensional energy!”
"Certainly you have," said the old man.
"That would be barbarous," protested Caroline.