by Clee Garson
don'tknow why I ever agreed to it. Scientific? Nonsense. Where are ourcontrols? For it to make any sense we'd have to work with scores ofsubjects. Suppose we do agree that the manner in which Don Crowley hasreacted is quite harmless. Does that mean we can release this discoveryto the world? Certainly not."
Ross said sullenly, "But you agreed that we'd go by the results ofthis...."
"I agreed to no such thing, Rossie Wooley, you overgrown lug. All Iagreed to do was consider the results. I was, and am, of the opinionthat if the person our politicians so lovingly call the Common Man wasreleased of the restrictions inhibiting him, he'd go hog wild anddestroy both society and himself. What is to prevent murder, robbery,rape and a score of other crimes, given invisibility for anyone who hasa couple of dollars with which to go into a drugstore and purchase ourserum?"
Her fiance sighed deeply, jamming tobacco fiercely into the bowl of hisbriar. He growled, "Look, you seem to think that the only thing thatrestricts man is the fear of being punished. There are other things, youknow."
"Good heavens," she said sarcastically. "Name _one_."
"There is the ethical code in which he was raised, based on religion orotherwise. There is the fact that man is fundamentally good, to use atrite term, given the opportunity."
"My education has evidently been neglected," Patricia said, stillargumentatively. "I've never seen evidence to support your claim."
"I'm not saying individuals don't react negatively, given opportunity tobe antisocial," he all but snarled. "I'm just saying people in general,common, little people, trend toward decency, desire the right thing."
"Individuals my ... my neck," Patricia snapped back. "Did you ever hearof Rome and the games? Here a whole people, millions of them, were giventhe opportunity to indulge in sadistic spectacles to their heart'sdesire. How many of them stayed home from the games?" She laughed inridicule.
Ross flushed. "Some of them did, confound it."
Dr. Braun had been taking in their debate, uncomfortably. As though inspite of himself, he said now, "Very few, I am afraid."
"Religious ethic," Patricia pursued, relentlessly. "The greatest of thecommandments is Thou Shalt Not Kill, but comes along a war in whichkilling becomes not only permissible but an absolute virtue and all ourgood Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and even Buddhists, who supposedlyare not even allowed to kill mosquitoes, wade in with sheer happiness."
"War releases abnormal passions," Ross said grudgingly.
"You don't need a war. Look at the Germans, supposedly one of our mosthighly civilized people. When the Nazi government released allrestraints on persecution of the Jews, gypsies and others, you know whathappened. This began in peace time, not in war."
Dr. Braun shifted in his chair. He said, his voice low, "We needn't lookbeyond our own borders. The manner in which our people conductedthemselves against the Amerinds from the very beginning of the whiteoccupation of North America was quite shocking."
Ross said to him, "I thought you were on my side. The Indian wars were along time ago. We're more advanced now."
Dr. Braun said softly, "My father fought against Geronimo in Arizona. Itwasn't so long ago as all that."
Ross Wooley felt the argument going against him and lashed back. "We'vebeen over and over this, what's your point?"
Patricia said doggedly, "The same point I tried to make from thebeginning. This discovery must not be generally released. We'll simplyhave to suppress it."
* * * * *
The door opened behind them. They turned. Nothing was there. Ross,scowling, lumbered to his feet to walk over and close it.
"Hey, take it easy," a voice laughed. "Don't walk right into a guy."
Ross stopped, startled.
Dr. Braun and Patricia stood up and stared, too.
Crowley laughed. "You all look like you're seeing a ghost."
Ross rumbled a grudging chuckle. "It'd be all right if we _saw_ theghost, it's not seeing you that's disconcerting."
The air began to shimmer, somewhat like heat on the desert's face.
Crowley said, "Hey, the stuff's wearing off. Where're my clothes?"
"Where you left them. There in that bedroom," Ross said. "We'll wait foryou." He went back and rejoined his associates. The door to the bedroomopened, there was a shimmering, more obvious now, and then the doorclosed behind it.
"He rejoined us just in time," Dr. Braun murmured. "Another ten minutesand he would have ... umah ... _materialized_ down on the street."
Ross hadn't finished the discussion. He said, his face in all but pout,"What you don't realize, Pat, is the world has gone beyond the pointwhere scientific discoveries can be suppressed. If we try to keep thelid on this today, the Russians or Chinese, or somebody, will hit on ittomorrow."
Patricia said impatiently, "Good heavens, let's don't bring the Cold Warinto it."
Ross opened his mouth to snap something back at her, closed it again andshrugged his bulky shoulders angrily.
In a matter of less than ten minutes the bedroom door reopened and thistime a grinning Crowley emerged, fully dressed. He said, "Man, that wasa devil of an experience!"
They saw him to a chair and had him talk it all through. He was candidenough, bubbling over with it all.
In the some eleven and a half hours he'd been on his own, he had coveredquite an area of Manhattan.
Evidently the first hour had been spent in becoming used to thestartling situation. He couldn't even see himself, which, to hissurprise affected walking and even use of his hands. You had to get usedto it. Then there was the fact that he was nude and _felt_ nude andhence uncomfortable walking about in mixed pedestrian traffic. But thatphase passed. Early in the game he found that there was small percentagein getting into crowds. It led to all sorts of complications, includingthe starting of minor rows, one person thinking another was pushing whenit was simply a matter of Crowley trying to get out from underfoot.
Then he went through a period of the wonder of it all. Being able towalk _anywhere_ and observe people who had no suspicion that they werebeing observed. It was during that phase that he had sought out thehotel in which he had read the chesty French movie actress BrigetteLoren was in residence. Evidently, he'd hit the nail right on the head.Brigette was at her toilette when he arrived on scene. In telling aboutthis, Crowley leered amusedly at Patricia from the side of his eyes. Sheignored him.
Then he'd gone through a period when the full realization of hisimmunity had hit him.
At this point he turned to Braun, "Hey, Doc, you ever eaten any caviar?You know, that Russian stuff. Supposed to be the most expensive food inthe world."
The doctor cleared his throat. "Small amounts in hors d'oeuvres atcocktail parties."
"Well, maybe I'm just a country boy but the stuff tastes like fish eggsto me. Anyway, to get back to the story...."
He'd gone into Tiffany's and into some of the other swank shops. Andthen into a bank or two, and stared at the treasures of Manhattan.
At this point he looked at Ross. "You know, just being invisible don'tmean all that. How you going to pick up a wad of thousand dollar billsand just walk out the front door with them? Everybody'd see the doughjust kind of floating through the air."
"I came to the same conclusion myself, when I experimented," Ross saidwryly.
He had ridden on the subways ... free. He had eaten various food invarious swank restaurants. He had even had drinks in name bars, samplingeverything from Metaxa to vintage champagne. He was of the opinion thateven though he remained invisible for the rest of his years, he'd stillstick to bourbon and beer.
He had gone down to Wall Street and into the offices of the topbrokerage firms and into the sanctum sanctorums of the wealthiest ofmucky-mucks but had been too impatient to stick around long enough topossibly hear something that might be profitable. He admitted,grudgingly, that he wouldn't have known what to listen for anyway.Frustrated there, he had gone back uptown and finally located thehangout of one of the more renown spo
rts promoters who was rumored tohave gangster connections and was currently under bail due to a boxingscandal. He had stayed about that worthy's office for an hour, gleaningnothing more than several dirty jokes he'd never heard before.
All this activity had wearied him so he went to the Waldorf, located anempty suite in the tower and climbed into bed for a nap after coollyphoning room service to give him a call in two hours. That had almostled to disaster. Evidently, someone on room service had found the suiteto be supposedly empty and had sent a boy up to investigate. However,when he had heard the door open, Crowley had