Phillips nodded, lips bluish and tight, his whole face a ghastly pewter hue. He put his head down, eyelids fluttered shut. MacMartree regarded him in silence for several minutes.
"This could be what you've been wanting," he said at last to Cole and Abner.
"Wanting?"
"Something's happening, isn't it? Something we didn't look for. Maybe there's reason for patrols after all, eh?"
Cole frowned. "You mean...." He didn't finish it. He got up quickly, and strode to the scanner.
"Everything's all right outside," he said, after a moment. "Everything outside the screen is just as it was at sundown."
MacMartree shrugged. "Nothing from out there could do this to Phillips anyway. Nothing gets through the screen."
Cole returned and squatted down with the others. He picked up a handful of pebbles and began flicking them, one at a time, at the force-screen, watching them bounce back into the area.
"There's an explanation for this, of course," MacMartree said, with a tone of confidence he did not feel.