The Stardroppers Read Free Page B

knowledge from the stars. If that were the whole story, of course, it would be fine.”
    “I’ve heard that theory before. Is it sound?”
    “Possibly. On the other hand the country where stardropping is most widespread, after this one, isn’t in Europe at all. It’s India. The Japanese get out this very cheap solar-powered model, and people go out with loads of them on incredible ramshackle vehicles—I’ve seen pictures—and in the villages they club together to buy the largest and loudest they can afford. Then they put the earpiece in a washtub or something to act as a resonator, and bob’s your uncle: every man his own guru. It’s alleged to appeal to the religious instinct of the people. Take your choice of explanations. There are enough to go around, heaven knows!”
    He realized suddenly he had forgotten his coffee, and gulped the whole cupful down at once.
    “How are things doing in the States?” he continued after a pause.
    “I have the impression the craze is six months to a year behind the peak it’s reached in Britain,” Dan answered. “It has a strong hold on the West Coast, but all kinds of fads have always flourished there. In the East it’s mainly young people and Greenwich Village types who are hooked, while the Midwest is barely touched—apart from universities, I mean. Even there, I think you have a worse student problem than we do, isn’t that right?”
    “That’s a very bad area indeed,” Redvers confirmed. “One hears every day about the number of kids who are dropping out—stardropping out,” he amended with a grimace. “It’s mainly the sensitive, highly intelligent kidswho are affected, too. They’re suffering the low-grade version of the ultimate addiction, which can cause you to lose interest in your home, your job, your family, your other hobbies.… But of course the insanity isn’t the worst part of it.”
    “Not the worst part of it?” Dan echoed. “What in hell
could
be worse, if you were right in saying Grey was based on a typical—ah—addict?”
    “Oh, the fact that people do disappear.”
    Redvers uttered the words so casually that Dan wondered whether he had heard right. He could not stop himself from jerking with surprise.
    “Yes, Mr. Cross,” Redvers said soberly. “They disappear. And judging by your reaction I take it I was right about the main purpose of your visit?”
    “Well, yes, I’m here to check out some rumors. But—”
    “But what makes me believe such a fantastic story?”
    Dan nodded.
    “We’ve documented twenty cases where we can’t shake the witnesses. They say—they swear—that people known to them have literally and physically vanished, usually with a noise like a door slamming. Up till now we’ve prevented any reputable news agency from picking up such stories, but we can’t stop the rumors.”
    Dan’s palms were slippery with sweat. He said, “What do these—these witnesses think about what they claim to have seen?”
    “What you’d expect: that these were people who’d discovered mystic alien abilities through the stardropper and went to put them to use.”
    “And you honestly believe them?”
    “No. Not yet. But I have a sneaking suspicion I shall have to eventually. And if this is true, of course, it’s a pretty explosive fact. A power of instantaneous displacement, if it could be brought under control, could be put to use as a weapon: imagine eliminating the need to deliver H-bombs by plane or missile! Surely that if anything might tempt one of the nuclear nations into a pre-emptive strike once they were convinced the ‘other side’ was on the verge of such a breakthrough. I presume this is why your people are investigating the rumors?”
    Dan nodded. The Agency had one sole purpose: to identifythreats to the peace of the world and ruthlessly cancel them out. For example, within the past year two prime ministers had died, one of a heart attack and the other of a cerebral embolism. Social psychologists had