Menace of the Mutant Master

by Perry Rhodan

  He returned to his hotel, armed himself with those items he considered indispensible and useful for his enterprise. He picked about 20 different instruments; but thanks to the superior skill of the Ferroniam micro-technicians they didn't take up much space: he could easily accommodate all in two of his trouser pockets and in the breast pocket of his suit.

  The heavy neutron raygun he carried, however, in a shoulder holster.

  Shortly before one A.M. he arrived in the vicinity of the printshop. He was pleased to note that the street was almost deserted. If he could manage to open the entrance door to the building within three minutes, he would then be safe.

  He needed 3½ minutes; but nobody came to disturb him. He was confident that no one had seen him.

  The entrance with the reception desk and the adjoining rooms with the printing presses Nyssen knew through Rhodan's and Michikai's descriptions. He didn't bother to search those. Without any further difficulties he entered the largest and best-furnished office and looked there for the door about which Michikai had spoken to him.

  There were five doors altogether in the office. The one Nyssen was interested in was the only one the owner had taken the trouble to lock.

  The lock was simple. It didn't offer any resistance to Nyssen's micro-tools for more than 20 seconds.

  The small room behind the door had no windows. Nyssen closed the door behind him, switched on his tiny but very bright high-intensity lamp and looked around for a place where he could put it down.

  Besides the v'phone Michikai had mentioned there was only a chair. Nyssen placed the lamp on the chair and wondered where he should now start his search.

  He felt somewhat foolish as he began to knock on the walls. Some spots sounded hollow but on closer inspection with his miniature X-ray rod he noted that this was merely due to some mortar being knocked loose from between the bricks.

  He spent one hour like this and slowly arrived at the conviction that he wasn't going to find anything at all here.

  Suddenly he heard a deep humming sound coming from behind. He whirled around and saw the video-phone screen light up gradually.

  He turned away from his will and regarded the screen. It was most unusual that a v'phone would start off on its own. The picture screen wouldn't light up till the connection really had been established. This could definitely not be the case here for nobody had lifted the receiver. Nyssen hadn't heard any buzzing or ringing to announce a call.

  He positioned himself in such a way that he was out of the line of vision of the picture phone's camera-picture sender. Then he waited.

  He heard the click in the receiver the same moment he hastily switched off the lamp.

  The receiver had not been lifted and still the videophone came to life!

  Nyssen slid along the will a bit closer to the instrument and listened to the metallic voice which just had begun to speak. This phone must have a specially powerful amplifier for Nyssen was able to understand every word without even having the receiver close to his ear.

  "... important meeting tomorrow evening at 8 o'clock... at my house. Everybody is to come to the meeting..."

  Nyssen's attention was partially diverted by the peculiar image that appeared on the reception screen. It was a maze of jumbled lines. At first sight it looked as if something had gone wrong with the reception but then Nyssen became aware of a certain regularity with which the jerking, whirling lines were flitting across the screen.

  He took his little camera from his pocket and snapped some pictures of the lines on the screen. But he

  had hardly started when the lines faded away. The reception had come to an end. Stlll Nyssen hoped that the experts would be able to obtain some results from a reading of this apparent confusion.

  He had been able to listen only halfway and had gathered that the announcement contained no important clue for him. The metallic voice had spoken only of things which must be familiar to the members of this mysterious organization. There was no hint where the mentioned items were located or what they were. He gathered that the members needed no allusions in order to understand what it was all about.

  Nyssen placed all his hope now in the few pictures he had been able to shoot.

  It was getting late. Nyssen didn't resume his systematic examination of the walls for hollow spaces. He was almost certain there was nothing to find behind these walls.

  Instead he now concentrated his attention on the amazing videophone which began to work without having been switched on and whose receiver transmitted sounds while it was still resting on the hook.

  There was an ordinary-looking but rather thinnish cord leading from the set to the wall. The cord disappeared into the wall a few inches below the video-screen. Nyssen inspected the cord closer and found that it passed through the wall horizontally.

  He decided therefore to leave the windowless room and returned to the larger office to look for a way that he could get to the other side of the wall. A door opened onto a little courtyard in the back of the building. One of the courtyard's walls seemed to be what Nyssen was looking for.

  It didn't take him long: he found where the thin cord emerged from the wall, then ran up to the roof.

  And on the roof he saw a large antenna!

  Nyssen whistled softly through his teeth. V'phone sets, just like regular phones, were attached to some network. They received the speech and image impulses through wires and lines which ran underground inside the city and were strung between wooden or plastic telephone poles across the countryside. A telephone therefore didn't need an antenna and neither did a videophone!

  This then was not a normal v'phone! It was a sender and receiving installation which worked without the intermediary of wires. It merely had been disguised as a videophone in order to fool any visitors.

  And that explained why it had started to work without anyone having lifted the receiver off the hook!

  Nyssen was in a rather pensive mood and decided to terminate this nocturnal visit. He was still pondering the matter when he unlocked the door to his room back in his hotel.

  As was his habit he first unpacked the various measuring instruments and placed them carefully on the table, one beside the other.

  Then he read the various gauges and scales, still absorbed in thoughts about his puzzling findings and quite convinced that the instruments would not show any readings.

  Radioactivity—none!

  Temperatur—what nonsense? He would have noticed it right away if he had run into a heatwave—normal!

  Telepathic—hypnotic interference...

  The instruments were so tiny that Nyssen had to use a magnifying glass in order to read the scales. Muttering a curse under his breath he removed the magnifying lens from his left eye and placed it in his right.

  But the reading remained the same.

  Telepathic—hypnotic interference—the indicator had moved over to plus six on the scale!

  Nyssen removed the lens from his right eye and started ahead.

  The measuring instrument was telling him that he had been exposed to some hypnotic influence. Plus six on the scale corresponded to six micro-freuds, that was sufficient to hypnotize a dozen adult men.

  But he hadn't noticed anything at all! Or? Was he still subjected to that hypnotic force?

  Well, thought Nyssen, it would be easy to find some explanation why I failed to be aware of it. Each brain has its own particular range of frequencies. Somebody might have been sending on a frequency to which my brain won't react. The frequency is measured integrally by the instrument. It will measure everything of a hypnotic nature that is broadcast within its range.

  But where the devil did this hypnotic interference originate?

  The moment the only possible explanation occurred to Nyssen, he was ready to pack up his instruments again and pay a second visit to the printshop. But he abandoned the idea after checking his watch. Four-thirty A.M.—too late!

  Of course! The wave pattern on the videoscreen! Nothing had been wrong
with the set. There had been no bad reception and neither had this been a product of some alien, geometrical fantasy—this then was the source of the hypnotic influence his instrument had registered!

  5/ KHREST--KIDNAPPED!

  In view of McMurray's phenomenal mobility it wasn't difficult at all for him to locate his victim after only a few hours.

  McMurray fixed in his memory the face and figure of that man and then proceeded to study his habits, his daily comings and goings.

  For Ted McMurray intended to abduct that man. By teletransportation. As a teleporter who had not been schooled by an Arkonide activation of the brain it represented a considerable difference whether he executed the tele-jump alone or whether he had to carry along with him some object similar to himself in size. A solo tele-jump involved for him a brief act of spontaneous release of energy but for a double-jump he needed a period of at least 10 minutes utmost and undisturbed concentration.

  McMurray therefore tried to find some time during the fortunately rather monotonous life pattern of his victim which could accommodate this 10 minute interval with the minimum risk to himself. Those hours when this man was most likely to be alone.

  It took two days for McMurray to orient himself.

  He set the time for between 20:00 and 21:00 o'clock local.

  Rhodan was convinced that no further information could be obtained from the tele-jump pattern which Dr. Manoli had extracted from Tako Kakuta's brain.

  The target area which he had encircled on the map had shrunk to roughly 28 square miles.

  The circle only slightly touched the city of Osaka. There was a great probability that their goal was located outside the confines of the city.

  This made the search easier. A house with a reinforced concrete cellar had to be quite large by Japanese standards.

  As soon as Rhodan had gathered all the results he called Khrest.

  But Khrest did not answer.

  Rhodan got in touch with Thora.

  Thora hadn't see Khrest for at least three hours.

  Rhodan waited another five minutes and then tried again to reach Khrest.

  But this time he had no better luck than before. Then Rhodan remembered the order the foreign teleporter had been given when he had invaded the administration building in Terrania and which had been foiled when Tako Kakuta had met and then followed him to the fateful trap.

  Rhodan sent out a general search alert for Khrest. One hour later there was no longer any doubt that Khrest was nowhere to be found within the area of the New Power.

  And he hadn't left any message where he had gone to or stated any other reason for his absence.

  Khrest had been kidnapped!

  By extrapolating backward they arrived at the most probable time the kidnapping might have occurred:

  during the half hour between 20:00 o'clock and 20:30. For a short while later Rhodan had for the first time tried to get in touch with Khrest.

  During these minutes Ishy Matsu, the slender Japanese mutant girl, had done her stretch of guard duty.

  She stated she had received a relatively strong but undecipherable single impulse at about shortly after 8

  P.M. Since this impulse hadn't reoccurred she had paid no further attention to it.

  Rhodan informed Thora that someone had abducted Khrest. He had never seen the proud Arkonide woman as upset as on this occasion.

  "What... what are you going to do about it?" she asked.

  Rhodan stared at her in amazement. "Attack! What else?"

  "But where? Haven't you..."

  "Oh, yes I do. I have all the data I need. Perhaps Nyssen has detected meanwhile some additional information that will be useful to me. We're leaving at once."

  "By matter transmitter?"

  Matter transmitters were one of those marvels that Rhodan had brought back from his expedition when he had gone in search of the planet Wanderer. These mechanisms would replace the parapsychic gift of teleportation for any person traveling inside their cage by transporting them via the fifth dimension to any place where a correspondingly adjusted receiving set was stationed.

  Rhodan shook his head. "No, not from here, if that's what you mean," he answered Thora's question. "We don't have enough information about the circumstances at the other end of the line. Within the next five hours a special detachment will fly to Osaka. They'll be taking along some transmats and will be able to use them once the area has been properly reconnoitered!"

  The hour between six and seven in the morning was one of the periods when Michikai was supposed to wait in the little restaurant for Nyssen's call.

  Nyssen had slept for two hours and phoned shortly after six o'clock. He was told that Michikai wasn't there.

  Nyssen repeated his call half an hour later but Michikai still hadn't shown up. Nyssen assumed that this little Japanese spy must have picked up his reward of $50 and split. He wasn't disturbed by this on general principles but still right now it was a nuisance when he could have made use of Michikai's services.

  Contrary to his decision to remain incognito throughout this mission he drove to the restaurant where Michikai should have been waiting for his phone call. Maybe the owner of the little eating joint could give him some hint where Michikai might be found.

  Everything had happened so fast for Khrest that he still hadn't quite comprehended what had taken place. A young man had suddenly appeared beside him while he was in his bedroom and had knocked him out.

  When Khrest came to he was lying in a room which strongly resembled the one Tako Kakuta had

  described having landed in when he had telejumped after the strange intruder.

  Khrest felt only a very mild headache, which led him to believe he had been hit over the head not too violently and that he had remained unconscious for not too long a time. But according to Tako's statements this room was supposed to be situated in Japan—some 2500 miles from Terrania.

  How could he have gotten here so fast?

  Could there be any other installations of this kind, perhaps in the immediate vicinity of Terrania?

  Not until some time later did it occur to Khrest that there might be some sufficiently strong telepotters among the enemy who could carry along an unconscious man during one of their tele-jumps. After some deliberation Khrest accepted this possibility as to what really had transpired.

  Meanwhile he had got up from the floor and examined the only door leading in or out of this room. The door seemed to be made of solid steel and he couldn't open it. The only furnishings the room contained were a chair and a table.

  Khrest sat down on the chair and began to wait. He regretted that it was not his habit to always carry a weapon on him. Among the most effective Arkonide thermo-rayguns there were some small enough to be overlooked with a high degree of probability during a body search.

  About one hour after Khrest had awakened the door opened and a man whom Khrest never had seen before snapped at him: "Come along!"

  Khrest didn't bother to get up. He simply raised his eyebrows and inquired: "Where to?"

  The man pointed an automatic at the Arkonide scientist. "You'll find out in time!" he bellowed angrily.

  Khrest stood up and walked past the man and through the door. He found himself now in an adjoining room which was in no way any more comfortable than the first one. A table, a chair; that was all.

  They passed into still another room beyond the second one which in addition to the usual meager furnishings also contained some kind of a videophone.

  "Take the chair and sit down in front of the screen!" commanded the man, his automatic still pointing at Khrest.

  Khrest obeyed. The man remained standing near the door and Khrest was just about to ask him what would happen next when suddenly the v'phone screen lit up. No picture could be seen on it, only a confusion of flickering, jerky, white wavy lines.

  At the same moment Khrest felt the peculiar humming pressure in his skull. He reacted instantaneously. Arkonide brains—and in particular as carefully tra
ined a brain as Khrest's—had no difficulty in resisting any kind of telepathic or hypnotic influence.

  However, he did understand the meaning of the hypnotic message: From now on you'll be working far me. I need a man like yourself. I'll show my appreciation for services rendered. You'll become my devoted, loyal servant!

  Khrest recognized at once what confronted him here. The wavy lines on the picture screen were the outflow and amplification of a hypnotic broadcast which would exert its influence on the person regarding the screen.

  That meant that Rhodan's assumption had been wrong: the unknown foe possessed not only the powers residing in his own brain but also some mechanical means to produce hypnotic commands even if they initially were still rather inefficient and immature.

  An unsympathetic voice began to speak after the hypno-broadcast had been running for almost two minutes. "Well, I got you after all!"

  Khrest didn't bother answering that greeting.

  "From now on you'll work for me!" declared the voice.

  Khrest decided to lay his cards on the table. "No, I will not!" he said firmly.

  This seemed to puzzle the unknown speaker for a few moments but then he continued: "Ah...! I see... it didn't work then with you. Never mind for the time being. I already know your personal frequency. Don't think you'll be able to resist me for any length of time—guard! Take that man away!"

  The guard led Khrest back to the room where he had awakened over an hour ago. Khrest sat down at the table and started to think about his situation.

  6/ GHOST TROOPS TO THE RESCUE

  On his way to the restaurant Nyssen received a call from Rhodan over his micro-telecom, telling him that Rhodan and 20 men had landed northeast of Osaka in order to conduct a search for the unknown enemy's hiding place. Nyssen was requested to supply at once all the data he had gathered in the meantime.

  He turned right around and drove back to his hotel. He parked his car in front and took the elevator up to his room.

  The first thing he saw on entering his room was Michikai. He was stretched out on the floor with a hole in his forehead. Blood, now dark and dried, had trickled from the wound across his temple onto the worn-out rug. The two men who had brought Michikai to Nyssen's room were flanking the door. Each held a gun in his hand and left no doubt in Nyssen's mind who the next victim might be.