The Possessed

by E.C. Tubb

Genres: Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Space Opera

Synopsis

In the remote Scottish Highlands there lurks a truly terrifying menace. It seems to be centred at a Government Research Establishment, but without definite proof of the exact nature of the menace, the authorities cannot act decisively. It was up to the ace detective, Martin Slade, to investigate and find that proof - even at the cost of his own life!

Release date: January 30, 2014

Publisher: Gateway

Print pages: 67

Sample

The Dumarest Saga:

1: The Winds of Gath (1967)

2: Derai (1968)

3: Toyman (1969)

4: Kalin (1969)

5: The Jester at Scar (1970)

6: Lallia (1971)

7: Technos (1972)

8: Veruchia (1973)

9: Mayenne (1973)

10: Jondelle (1973)

11: Zenya (1974)

12: Eloise (1975)

13: Eye of the Zodiac (1975)

14: Jack of Swords (1976)

15: Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun (1976)

16: Haven of Darkness (1977)

17: Prison of Night (1977)

18: Incident on Ath (1978)

19: The Quillian Sector (1978)

20: Web of Sand (1979)

21: Iduna’s Universe (1979)

22: The Terra Data (1980)

23: World of Promise (1980)

24: Nectar of Heaven (1981)

25: The Terridae (1981)

26: The Coming Event (1982)

27: Earth is Heaven (1982)

28: Melome (1983)

29: Angado (1984)

30: Symbol of Terra (1984)

31: The Temple of Truth (1985)

32: The Return (1997)

33: Child of Earth (2008)

The Cap Kennedy (F.A.T.E.) Series (E.C. Tubb writing as Gregory Kern)

1: Galaxy of the Lost (1973)

2: Slave Ship from Sergan (1973)

3: Monster of Metelaze (1973)

4: Enemy Within the Skull (1974)

5: Jewel of Jarhen (1974)

6: Seetee Alert! (1974)

7: The Gholan Gate (1974)

8: The Eater of Worlds (1974)

9: Earth Enslaved (1974)

10: Planet of Dread (1974)

11: Spawn of Laban (1974)

12: The Genetic Buccaneer (1974)

13: A World Aflame (1974)

14: The Ghosts of Epidoris (1975)

15: Mimics of Dephene (1975)

16: Beyond the Galactic Lens (1975)

17: The Galactiad (1983)

Alien Dust (1955)

Alien Impact (1952)

Journey Into Terror (originally published as Alien Life (1954, rev 1998))

Atom War on Mars (1952)

Fear of Strangers (first published as C.O.D. - Mars (1968))

Century of the Manikin (1972)

City of No Return (1954)

Death God’s Doom (1999)

Death is a Dream (1967)

Dead Weight (first published as Death Wears a White Face (1979))

Escape into Space (1969)

Footsteps of Angels (2004) (previously unpublished work written c.1988)

Hell Planet (1954)

Journey to Mars (1954)

Moon Base (1964)

Pandora’s Box (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)

Pawn of the Omphalos (1980)

S.T.A.R. Flight (1969)

Stardeath (1983)

Starslave (2010) (previously unpublished work written 1984)

Stellar Assignment (1979)

Temple of Death (1996) (previously unpublished work written 1954)

Fifty Days to Doom (first published as The Extra Man (1954))

The Life-Buyer (1965, 2008)

The Luck Machine (1980)

World in Torment (originally published as The Mutants Rebel (1953))

The Primitive (1977)

The Resurrected Man (1954)

The Sleeping City (1999)

The Space-Born (1956)

The Stellar Legion (1954)

To Dream Again (2011)

Venusian Adventure (1953)

Tide of Death (first published as World at Bay (1954))

E. C. Tubb (writing as Arthur MacLean)

The Possessed (revised version of Touch of Evil (1957))

E. C. Tubb (writing as Brian Shaw)

Argentis (1952)

E. C. Tubb (writing as Carl Maddox)

Menace from the Past (1954)

The Living World (1954)

E. C. Tubb (writing as Charles Grey)

Dynasty of Doom (1953)

The Extra Man (first published as Enterprise 2115 (1954) & then as The Mechanical Monarch (1958))

I Fight for Mars (1953)

Space Hunger (1953)

The Hand of Havoc (1954)

Secret of the Towers (originally published as The Tormented City (1953))

The Wall (1953)

E. C. Tubb (writing as Gill Hunt)

Planetfall (1951)

E. C. Tubb (writing as King Lang)

Saturn Patrol (1951)

E. C. Tubb (writing as Roy Sheldon)

The Metal Eater (1954)

E. C. Tubb (writing as Volsted Gridban)

The Green Helix (originally published as Alien Universe (1952))

Reverse Universe (1952)

Planetoid Disposals Ltd. (1953)

The Freedom Army (originally published as De Bracy’s Drug (1953))

Fugitive of Time (1953)

Terror by night

SHE awoke, her heart pounding with terror, her body clammy with perspiration. She lay in the thick, stifling darkness of her room, eyes wide, ears straining to catch the small, alien sound, every nerve and muscle tense. It came again—the soft, sly testing of her door.

She got up off the bed quickly, dragging in her breath, thankful that she had taken the precaution of wedging a chair beneath the knob. Now, even if they had a key, they wouldn’t be able to reach her. They could not open the door.

She heard a muttered exclamation. The chair creaked as force was applied to it, and, for one heart-stopping moment she thought that it would yield. Then there was silence, and a mounting sense of crawling horror. Jerkily, she moved in the dark.

She fumbled for the light switch. She put the light on. She found her cigarettes and lit one. She inhaled deeply, almost greedily, holding the smoke in her lungs for a very long moment before letting it trickle out from between her full, red lips.

The cigarette served to steady her. She was conscious now that her white blouse was wet with perspiration: pasted to her skin. She stripped it off quickly, found another gray, figure-hugging skirt and slipped on a jacket. Her hands trembled as, slowly, she slid on her shoes.

She was slim and brown-haired and her dark eyes were haunted. She knew now that she had to get away from this place at once. She knew it with absolute certainty. The last twenty-four hours were a confused and ugly memory: time during which she had been certain of nothing, not even her own identity. But now it was as though a mist had been partially lifted from her mind.

There was something very wrong here at Kirkbreck. There had been something very wrong since Director Mercer had been involved in an accident and had fallen seriously ill a little over a week before.

What it was she didn’t know. She couldn’t pin it down. All she knew was that the character of every one of the other people working in the Space Research Establishment had undergone a subtle change during the past few days. And it had been a change for the worse.

There was evil in the air. She could feel it. Malignant forces were all around her, pressing in on her from every side. She had to get out. Now. Tonight. Before something even more horrible happened to her. Before it was too late—

“Eva…” A soft voice called her name and she started upright, shaking. She had thought that whoever had tried the door so slyly and so furtively had gone away.

“Eva…”

“Who is it?”

“Don’t you know me, Eva?” The voice mocked her. Slowly, unwillingly, she felt herself being drawn across the room. She stood by the door, and still she trembled. “It’s Glenn. You know me, old girl.”

“Doctor Glenn?”

More than anyone else in the establishment, he had changed.

“Of course…” The voice fell to a coaxing murmur, which set the hairs on edge along Eva’s spine. “Now why don’t you open the door and let me in…”

“No!” The refusal was instinctive, bursting from her corded throat. It came as something very near to a shout. There was impatient pressure on the door.

“You’re being very foolish, Eva.” Glenn sounded irritated. Then he said, “Do open the door, there’s a good girl. I want to talk to you.”

“At three o’clock in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“What about?”

“About yourself, for one thing. You may not realize it, but you’re a very sick young woman.”

Eva’s legs began to shake again. Her whole body shook. She couldn’t control it. But she got out: “There’s nothing the matter with me.”

“Oh, but there is, Eva.” Glenn’s voice was softly persuasive. “I’m a Doctor of Medicine, remember. Not a Doctor of Science, like you and the others. I should know. There is something very much the matter with you, Eva. You’ve been behaving very strangely for days—ever since that accident with the nosecone. And then—yesterday—remember—you cut your hand in the lab—”

“That was nothing. A scratch.”

“—But I gave you a penicillin injection, just to be sure. Better be safe than sorry, eh? But remember, unfortunately, it turned out you were allergic to penicillin, didn’t it? Remember—?”

Eva remembered, but not with clarity. She remembered the cut and Glenn’s insistence upon the injection. She remembered the strange, creeping mental confusion that had followed it. It was something that, in all her life, she had never experienced before.

She was not allergic to penicillin. That was a lie. She had had injections often enough in the past—but never one like this! She remembered the fear that had started out of her like sweat.

Cold, irrational fear it was, and it had grown in step with her mental confusion. Instinctive fear. But nonetheless real for that.

It was the fear of the hunted animal for the cruel predator that prowled by night. It was fear that had mounted and mounted. It had taken possession of her. And then—?

She couldn’t remember all of what had followed. Whole hours were lost in a nightmarish whirl of voices and evil-eyed faces and a terrible, never-ceasing, ever-present sense of dread.

Then she remembered struggling with Glenn. Fighting him off. She remembered scrambling along the corridor towards her room. Someone had come after her. They mustn’t catch her. She remembered slamming her door and locking it—panting in her haste. She remembered wedging the chair beneath the door-knob—

“It all comes back to you now, eh—?” Glenn was still there. Still on the other side of the door. “And surely you must realize now just how foolishly you’ve been behaving.”

His voice was gentle. He reasoned with Eva as with a child.

“You seem to be afraid. Afraid of men you’ve known and worked with the best part of two years in this establishment. Two years! That’s how crazy and irrational this whole thing is! Why should you suddenly be so afraid? The men you seem to fear haven’t changed in any way. They haven’t grown two heads within the last few days, or contracted satyriasis. They’re all responsible, intelligent scientists, just as they always were. They’re your friends, E. . .