by Perry Rhodan
"Pucky!" Perry interrupted calmly. "Didn't you want to skip over to the Springers and request a parley?"
The Vagabond leaper became mock serious as he answered, "Yes, that's right, Mr. Rhodan, sir. I'm glad you reminded me." Then, glancing at Bell with his gentle brown eyes, Pucky added: "But when I get back I'll tell this... this... this..."
He couldn't find the right word so to save himself embarrassment he dematerialized.
Bell gazed thoughtfully at the suddenly empty spot. With Pucky safely out of earshot, he admitted aloud: "He's really a cute little critter." Then he thrust his hands in his pockets and strolled to the other side of the roof, where he studied intently the motionless robot army.
Rhodan stood next to Marshall. Both men followed Bell with their eyes. "That's what you call a clever retreat," the telepath commented.
"Let's hope the Springers are just as clever," Perry replied, shielding his eyes with his hand in order to look at the building a mile and a half away where at this very moment the 13 governors were confronted with what was probably the greatest surprise of their lives.
Not everybody is prepared to nonchalantly cope with the sudden materialization of a super-sized, sartorially clad mouse out of thin air—only those who believe in astral projections, human ghosts and the possibility of the incarnation of subhuman ectoplasm as well.
And the Springers, those tyrant traders of physical goods throughout the galaxy, were the epitome of materialistic beings.
A mouse midget from nowhere was enough to make a Springer trade in his old beliefs for new. And there were 13 of them, bug-eyed, all witnessing the same mysterious phenomenon.
It was enough to generate a new kind of Instant Plague: an epidemic of epidermis shedding! In other words, when Pucky solidified in the midst of the Assembly like some phantom supermouse,the Springers nearly sprang out of their skins!
THE PLAGUE OF OBLIVION
Copyright © Ace Books 1973
Ace Publishing Corporation
All Rights Reserved
THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME
A world gone mad is a world that's bad news to its conquerors. Especially if the madness is certain to spread to them! What's happening on Goszul's Planet gives second thoughts to the Springers, the Traders, the Mounders, as these interstellar tyrants are faced with the terrifying prospect of losing their memories. A fear great enough to drive them out of their minds! Perry is pleased—and yet he is a compassionate man, not one who would stand idly by and watch a whole planet lose its mind. Does he know something we don't know? There's just one way to find out and that's to read PERRY RHODAN #29 and learn the secret of...
A WORLD GONE MAD
by Clark Darlton