The frogs moved carefully back, farther under cover of the hedge. John abandoned contact, withdrawing his powers into himself. He recoiled from the evil and the violence that swirled about him. Whose word could a man trust, he thought. Was there no hand that would not strike down his neighbor at the slightest whim?
“John!” Martha called him gently. In some ways her spirit withstood the blunt fury of existence better than his.
“Remember what Thornton Henniger said that day when we signed our contracts?” he said.
“I remember,” said Martha.
“I don’t know how—but someday I’ll kill him.”
“No! That’s not our purpose, John. Remember—you lifted me up and showed me what we must do. This isn’t it.”
He recalled the names of scientists he had known—men and women whose careers had been cut short
