Mission: Earth "The Enemy Within" by Ron L. Hubbard Page B

misdirection, I could tell she was blind.
    "I'm the young fellow who called yesterday from New York," said Heller in a gentle voice.
    "Oh, sakes alive. Come in, come in and sit. Have some coffee." Heller did and she bustled about and got him some coffee.
    "I am surely glad you could drive in," she said.
    "There ain't been a car on that road since my husband died. How'd you find this place anyway?"
    "You're still on the map, ma'am," said Heller in a strong New England accent.
    "Well, I do declare it's a comfort not to be spilled off the country complete!" She groped for the chair and sat down, not quite facing him. "This used to be a busy place until they changed all the roads. Them dang-blast commissioners is always changing things. Be moving these hills off next! Some more coffee?"
    I blinked. How did she know his cup had been emptied?
    "No, thanks," said Heller. "Now, you said, ma'am, that the old repair shop could be locked up tightly and the roof was still sound. Could I see it?"
    She got some keys and shortly had groped along a wall and around the building and had the place open. It was a space big enough for several cars, greasepits in the floor, windows sealed.
    "Looks fine," said Heller. "I'd like to rent it for a few months."
    "Well, a little rent would help in these inflation times. What would you be willing to pay?"
    "A hundred a month."
    "A hundred a month! Sakes alive! You could have the whole place for half that and the chickens, too!"
    "Well, there'll be two cars here," said Heller.
    "Oh."
    "Off and on. Does anyone ever come here, ma'am?"
    "My niece, every couple days, to see if I'm all right. But since I drivv some intruders off with a shotgun, nary a soul except my niece."
    "It's a deal, then," said Heller. "Mind if I drive a car in here now? I got to make some adjustments."
    "Go right ahead! There's plenty of tools if you don't mind rust."
    He gave her a hundred and she gave him some keys. He drove the cab in.
    And then he did something that showed the cunning and treachery I had always hated in him.
    He closed up the doors from within.
    He opened a bag and got out paper rolls and he taped it across all the window insides. He turned on the old electric bulbs of the place.
    Then, (bleep) him, he took a small floodlight out of his bag and pointed it at the side of the cab, and the area turned BLACK!
    The sign on the door vanished!
    Playing the light over the whole cab, section by section, he was turning the glaring orange to a midnight ink!
    Then I knew what it was. He was using a Voltarian preparation. He had had that man in Newark add it to the cab's paint! The light was giving it a color shift!
    They use it in fancy Voltarian advertising signs. A beam passes over the sign and it turns blue, then a second beam of a different frequency passes over the sign and it turns red, by a shift of refraction frequency in the paint additive.
    It didn't take him very long. Then he went around to the front and bent down, snapped a sort of cover off the license plate. He did the same thing in back.
    Then he opened up the bag and got a little vial, put some liquid on his fingers and rubbed it over his face and into his hair. He put some on the back of his hands.
    He sat in front of the rearview mirror, turned a dial on his light and played it over his head. He had black hair! Then he turned the dial again and played the light over his face and hands and he had dark brown, almost black face and hands. Then he put on a false black mustache.
    The sly treachery of it!
    But he wasn't that good. He still had blue eyes!
    He had been wearing a black suit. He didn't change it. He got out a black slouch hat and put it on.
    He stood back and looked at the cab. He got in and folded the meter down out of sight.
    He opened up the garage and backed out.
    At the house door, he said, "I'll be back and forth from time to time. I may be late or early."
    "That's all right," said the old blind woman. "Just toot your horn twice so I'll know it's