faintly.
"Driver," the general said over his shoulder. "Ride over it."
Micheals started to protest, but stopped himself. The military mindwould have to find out in its own way.
The driver put his jeep in gear and shot forward, jumping the leech'sfour-inch edge. The jeep got to the center of the leech and stopped.
"I didn't tell you to stop!" the general bellowed.
"I didn't, sir!" the driver protested.
The jeep had been yanked to a stop and had stalled. The driver startedit again, shifted to four-wheel drive, and tried to ram forward. Thejeep was fixed immovably, as though set in concrete.
"Pardon me," Micheals said. "If you look, you can see that the tires aremelting down."
The general stared, his hand creeping automatically toward his pistolbelt. Then he shouted, "Jump, driver! Don't touch that gray stuff."
White-faced, the driver climbed to the hood of his jeep, looked aroundhim, and jumped clear.
There was complete silence as everyone watched the jeep. First its tiresmelted down, and then the rims. The body, resting on the gray surface,melted, too.
The aerial was the last to go.
The general began to swear softly under his breath. He turned to thedriver. "Go back and have some men bring up hand grenades and dynamite."
The driver ran back to the convoy.
"I don't know what you've got here," the general said. "But it's notgoing to stop a U.S. Army convoy."
Micheals wasn't so sure.
* * * * *
The leech was nearly awake now, and its body was calling for more andmore food. It dissolved the soil under it at a furious rate, filling itin with its own body, flowing outward.
A large object landed on it, and that became food also. Then suddenly--
A burst of energy against its surface, and then another, and another. Itconsumed them gratefully, converting them into mass. Little metalpellets struck it, and their kinetic energy was absorbed, their massconverted. More explosions took place, helping to fill the starvingcells.
It began to sense things--controlled combustion around it, vibrations ofwind, mass movements.
There was another, greater explosion, a taste of _real_ food! Greedilyit ate, growing faster. It waited anxiously for more explosions, whileits cells screamed for food.
But no more came. It continued to feed on the soil and on the Sun'senergy. Night came, noticeable for its lesser energy possibilities, andthen more days and nights. Vibrating objects continued to move aroundit.
It ate and grew and flowed.
* * * * *
Micheals stood on a little hill, watching the dissolution of his house.The leech was several hundred yards across now, lapping at his frontporch.
Good-by, home, Micheals thought, remembering the ten summers he hadspent there.
The porch collapsed into the body of the leech. Bit by bit, the housecrumpled.
The leech looked like a field of lava now, a blasted spot on the greenEarth.
"Pardon me, sir," a soldier said, coming up behind him. "GeneralO'Donnell would like to see you."
"Right," Micheals said, and took his last look at the house.
He followed the soldier through the barbed wire that had been set up ina half-mile circle around the leech. A company of soldiers was on guardaround it, keeping back the reporters and the hundreds of curious peoplewho had flocked to the scene. Micheals wondered why he was still allowedinside. Probably, he decided, because most of this was taking place onhis land.
The soldier brought him to a tent. Micheals stooped and went in.General O'Donnell, still in suntans, was seated at a small desk. Hemotioned Micheals to a chair.
"I've been put in charge of getting rid of this leech," he said toMicheals.
Micheals nodded, not commenting on the advisability of giving a soldiera scientist's job.
"You're a professor, aren't you?"
"Yes. Anthropology."
"Good. Smoke?" The general lighted Micheals' cigarette. "I'd like you tostay around here in an advisory capacity. You were one of the first tosee this leech. I'd appreciate your observations on--" he smiled--"theenemy."
"I'd be glad to," Micheals said. "However, I think this is more in theline of a physicist or a biochemist."
"I don't want this place cluttered with scientists," General O'Donnellsaid, frowning at the tip of his cigarette. "Don't get me wrong. I havethe greatest appreciation for science. I am, if I do say so, ascientific soldier. I'm always interested in the latest weapons. Youcan't fight any kind of a war any more without science."
* * * * *
O'Donnell's sunburned face grew firm. "But I can't have a team oflonghairs poking around this thing for the next month, holding me up. Myjob is to destroy it, by any means in my power, and at once. I am goingto do just that."
"I don't think you'll find it that easy," Micheals said.
"That's what I want you for," O'Donnell said. "Tell me why and I'llfigure out a way of doing it."
"Well, as far as I can figure out, the leech is an organic mass-energyconverter, and a frighteningly efficient one. I would guess that it hasa double cycle. First, it converts mass into energy, then back into massfor its body. Second, energy is converted directly into the body mass.How this takes place, I do not know. The leech is not protoplasmic. Itmay not even be cellular--"
"So we need something big against it," O'Donnell interrupted. "Well,that's all right. I've got some big stuff here."
"I don't think you understand me," Micheals said. "Perhaps I'm notphrasing this very well. _The leech eats energy._ It can consume thestrength of any energy weapon you use against it."
"What happens," O'Donnell asked, "if it keeps on eating?"
"I have no idea what its growth-limits are," Micheals said. "Its growthmay be limited only by its food source."
"You mean it could continue to grow probably forever?"
"It could possibly grow as long as it had something to feed on."
"This is really a challenge," O'Donnell said. "That leech can't betotally impervious to force."
"It seems to be. I suggest you get some physicists in here. Somebiologists also. Have them figure out a way of nullifying it."
The general put out his cigarette. "Professor, I cannot wait whilescientists wrangle. There is an axiom of mine which I am going to tellyou." He paused impressively. "Nothing is impervious to force. Musterenough force and anything will give. _Anything._
"Professor," the general continued, in a friendlier tone, "you shouldn'tsell short the science you represent. We have, massed under North Hill,the greatest accumulation of energy and radioactive weapons everassembled in one spot. Do you think your leech can stand the full forceof them?"
"I suppose it's possible to overload the thing," Micheals saiddoubtfully. He realized now why the general wanted him around. Hesupplied the trappings of science, without the authority to overrideO'Donnell.
"Come with me," General O'Donnell said cheerfully, getting up andholding back a flap of the tent. "We're going to crack that leech inhalf."
* * * * *
After a long wait, rich food started to come again, piped into one sideof it. First there was only a little, and then more and more.Radiations, vibrations, explosions, solids, liquids--an amazing varietyof edibles. It accepted them all. But the food was coming too slowly forthe starving cells, for new cells were constantly adding their demandsto the rest.
The ever-hungry body screamed for more food, faster!
Now that it had reached a fairly efficient size, it was fully awake. Itpuzzled over the energy-impressions around it, locating the source ofthe new food massed in one spot.
Effortlessly it pushed itself into the air, flew a little way anddropped on the food. Its super-efficient cells eagerly gulped the richradioactive substances. But it did not ignore the lesser potentials ofmetal and clumps of carbohydrates.
"The damned fools," General O'Donnell said. "Why did they have to panic?You'd think they'd never been trained." He paced the ground outside histent, now in a new location three miles back.
The leech had grown to two miles in diameter. Three farming communitieshad been evacuated.
Micheals, standing beside the general, was still stupefied by thememory. The leech had accepted the massed power of the weapons for awhile, and then its entire bulk had lifted in the air. The Sun had beenblotted out as it flew leisurely over North Hill, and dropped.
The Leech Page 2