Outside was the sleeping city, the lights glowing dimly in the shiny blackness. The lights that marched out from Chicago, down the highways and across the continents until they spanned the whole vast globe itself.
The thought occurred to him then, as it must have to Adam Hart years before.
It was going to be fun to play God.
You remind me of a man.
What man?
The man with the power.
What power?
The power of hoo-doo.
Who do?
You do!
Do what?
Remind me of a man.
What man?
The man with the power …
Also by Frank M. Robinson
from Tom Doherty Associates
The Dark Beyond the Stars
Death of a Marionette
Waiting
PRAISE FOR FRANK M. ROBINSON’S LAST NOVEL, WAITING
“A Top-10 Book for the Summer”—NPR’s “All Things Considered”
“Waiting can be best described as an anthropological thriller … with nice action sequences and fine writing. Waiting is not a simple rewrite of The Power. It’s a different spin that offers loyal readers a glimpse of the author’s intelligence and wit.”
—Mystery News
“Waiting is a thriller with smarts, and it is a pleasure to recommend. Characters are richly detailed, and the plot twists are fascinating as well as credible in this very fine novel. Robinson creates terror in everyday settings—there is no safe harbor. Waiting is a novel of suspense that makes you think about the larger questions of illusion and reality. What happens to your sense of self and its place in the world when you learn that someone you’ve known all your life is nothing like you knew? … Read Waiting with all the lights on and all the doors and windows locked, not that mere locks and lights will save you.”
—Bay Area Reporter
“Robinson’s Waiting is not a sequel to the book that put him on the science fiction map, The Power, although it does connect to the earlier novel. Many readers regard The Power as the best book yet written about what a true superhuman being would be like, walking like an invisible god among men … . While this novel may not have the impact of The Power, it’s a very good book and, the two together provide an unusual example of an interesting science fiction theme looked at from two different perspectives.”
—The Orlando Sentinel
“A spellbinding novel by acclaimed master of suspense Frank Robinson.”
—Playboy
“Jolting murders and mind-boggling speculations on the fate of homo sapiens coexist in this excellent book.”
—San Francisco Chronicle “Bay City Best”
“Suppose another species of human beings has been hiding on the planet for 35,000 years, waiting to take over. That’s the intriguing premise behind the latest thriller by Frank M. Robinson … a compelling tale.”
—Chicago Tribune
“A truly frightening and plausible story about another species of human beings, in hiding for 35,000 years and now ready to take control of the planet … Robinson grips his readers by combining visceral fear with intellectual inquiry. This creepily credible tale will have his readers looking more closely at their so-called friends.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
THE POWER
Copyright © 1956 by Frank M. Robinson. Renewed © 1984 by Frank M. Robinson. Revised version copyright © 1999 Frank M. Robinson.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
The quotation “You remind me of a man …” on page 7 is from a routine which first appeared in the motion picture The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, produced in 1947 by RKO Radio Pictures. Producer Dore Schary, screenplay by Sidney Sheldon. Used by permission.
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Book design by Lynn Newmark
eISBN 9781466819535
First eBook Edition : April 2012
First Tor Edition: March 2000
Power, The Page 21