The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simak Page B

wasn’t he?”
    â€œYes, he was. You’re acquainted with him, doctor. The man who was found in space. Frozen and encapsulated.”
    â€œYes, I know,” said Winston. “What did he have to do with this?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” said Daniels. “I’d suspect he was the wolf.”
    Winston made a face. “Come now,” he said. “You can’t expect me to believe a thing like that. What you are saying is Blake most likely was a werewolf.”
    â€œDid you read this evening’s papers?”
    â€œNo, I can’t say I have. What would the papers have to do with what happened here?”
    â€œNothing, perhaps, but I’m inclined to think …”
    Daniels stopped what he had meant to say. Good God, he told himself, it is too fantastic. It simply couldn’t happen. Although it was the one thing which might explain what had happened up on the third floor an hour or so ago.
    â€œDoctor Daniels, what are you inclined to think? If you have some information, please come forth with it. You realize, of course, what this means to us. Publicity—too much publicity and the wrong kind of it entirely. Sensationalism, and a hospital can’t afford sensationalism. I hate to think what, even now, the papers and dimensino may be doing with it. And there’ll be a police inquiry. Already they’re snooping around the place, talking to people they have no right to talk with and asking questions that should not be asked. And investigations of all sorts. Congressional hearings maybe. Space Administration will be down our throat, wanting to know what happened to Blake, to this prize pet of theirs. And I can’t tell them, Daniels, that he turned into a wolf.”
    â€œNot a wolf, sir. But an alien creature. One that looks remarkably like a wolf. You’ll recall the police claimed it was a wolf with arms sprouting from its shoulders.”
    The chief of staff growled. “No one else said that. The police were panicked. Shooting straight into the lobby. One bullet missed the receptionist by no more than inches. Crashed into the paneling just above her head. They were frightened men, I tell you. They don’t know what they saw. What was this you were saying about an alien creature?”
    Daniels drew in a deep breath and took the plunge. “A witness by the name of Lukas testified this afternoon at the bioengineering hearing. He’d dug up some old record about two simulated men being processed a couple of centuries ago. Claimed he found the records in the Space Administration files …”
    â€œWhy those files? Why should a record of that sort …”
    â€œWait,” said Daniels. “You haven’t heard the half of it. These were open-ended androids …”
    â€œGood Lord!” exclaimed Winston. He stared glassily at Daniels. “The old werewolf principle! An organism that could change, that could be anything at all. There is that old myth …”
    â€œApparently it wasn’t a myth,” said Daniels, grimly. “Two of the androids were synthesized and sent out on survey and exploration ships.”
    â€œAnd you think Blake is one of them?”
    â€œThat’s the thought I had. Lukas testified this afternoon that the two went out. The records then are silent. No mention of their coming back.”
    â€œIt just doesn’t make good sense,” protested Winston. “Good Lord, man, two hundred years ago. If they made androids then, good, serviceable androids, we’d be swarming with them now. You just don’t make two of anything and then drop the entire project.”
    â€œYou would,” said Daniels, “if those two didn’t work. Let’s say, just for argument, that not only the androids failed to return, but likewise the ships that they were on. That they just blasted off into nothingness and there was no further word of them. Not only would no more of the