Part 38 (1/2)

”Maybe he's smarter than we think. Maybe there's no point in looking at a pending disaster from every angle. The what-will-be-will-be att.i.tude isn't necessarily like that of the ostrich which sticks its head in the sand.”

”Do the people inside really believe?” Entman asked.

”It's pretty difficult to tell. Sometimes I wonder what my own real feelings are.”

”I wasn't completely briefed on how it ended,” Entman said delicately.

”I think the phony specifications got through.”

”If they did--if things are really as they appear--”

Taber smiled in the darkness. ”Are _you_ beginning to doubt, Doctor?”

”Oh, be quiet,” Entman said with friendly petulance. ”I was going to say that I was rather proud of those details. If our hostiles out there follow my specifications, they'll create androids with much smaller lungs and non-porous skin that will give them no end of trouble when they start chasing frightened householders down the streets of the world.”

Taber chuckled. ”I remember a story about the j.a.panese Navy. They were supposed to have built some s.h.i.+ps to specifications stolen in England.

When launched, they slid out into the bay and tipped over.”

Entman sighed. ”I wish I could get some of the data those creatures used in the construction of the androids.”

”You'd like to make one of your own?”

”It would solve the servant problem. Terrible here in Was.h.i.+ngton.”

”Labor unions would holler b.l.o.o.d.y murder.”

”You can't stop progress.”

Suddenly Entman got to his feet. He walked to the edge of the patio and looked upward. Taber saw his face in the light streaming from the living room--he seemed frightened.

”Brent! It's such a helpless feeling. What do we do?”

Brent Taber got up and went over and stood beside Entman. He, too, looked up into the velvet night; the beautiful, quiet, impersonal night.

The sinister night.

”We watch the stars,” Brent said. ”And we wait.”

THE END

_A Terrifying Tale Of Horror In The Skies_

THE FLYING EYES

By J. Hunter Holly