"Without…”
"That's it. Neither of you will have weapons.”
"But they have guns," said Gary.
"Their guns won't work," the voice said. "And yours won't either. Your ship won't work and your guns won't work and you will have to fight.”
Terrible laughter came from the voice, a gleeful laughter that verged on hysteria. Then the laughter ceased and they knew that they were alone, that the mind — or the presence — with the voice had withdrawn from them, that it had gone elsewhere. But that it still was watching.
"Gary," Caroline said softly.
"Yes," said Gary.
"That voice was insane," she said. "You caught it, didn't you. The overtones in it.”
He nodded. "Delusion of grandeur. Playing at God. And the worst of it is, he can make it stick. We've stumbled into his yard. There isn't a thing we can do about it.”
Across the mushroom forest, the entrance port of the Hellhound ship was swinging open. From it came two beings, tall and waddling things that glimmered in the feeble light of the great red sun.