“Do you honestly think the dunceheads may be as much of a fraud?” Manning asked. “It’s important. I’ve got to know.”
Carlson found himself smiling, despite the grimness of his mood. “I’m flattered that you place so high a value on my opinion,” he said. “Frankly, I just don’t know.”
But I do, Manning came close to blurting out. If it isn’t a fraud we are living in a universe where anything is possible, a universe that is terrifying beyond belief. If what I thought I saw earlier today wasn’t a hallucination brought about by shock I’m not sure I can carry on. The star-shaped head—that probing of my mind and the creature’s slow dwindling. Just the way the foliage on the forest floor became visible through its transparent body an instant before it vanished would have made the fear I’ve encoun
