The War Of Two Worlds, IV-V.
Andersonian heroes take action, solve problems and, when necessary, escape. An Andersonian hero, arrested or detained by several armed beings, is often able to attack one of his captors, seize a weapon, use it, evade the others and make his escape under cover of the confusion that he has caused. It looks as if that is about to happen again. Arnfeld and Catherine, surrounded by armed Martians, have reason to believe that a high-ranking Martian, Dzuga, and his human liaison officer, Hale, are not what they seem, might even be unknown beings equally hostile to both Martians and Terrestrials, so Arnfeld, adopting a pleading whine, steps forward, seizes a floor lamp and rams it like a spear into the face of the seated Dzuga while shouting for Catherine to escape through a window. In fact, neither of them makes it through a window but that doesn't matter. Dzuga is a metamorph and the blow to his face has not only rendered him unconscious but also penetrated his Martian disguise. He now appears as thicker, shorter and pale skinned with a crested head! - which reminds us readers of Intelligence Prime in the introduction. That sounds like my worst nightmare: a Martian invader, when attacked, morphing into a crested monster. At that stage, I would be struggling to wake up.
2 comments:
That sort of thing does happen. Most capture operations depend on intimidation; if someone isn't intimidated, and reacts intelligently, mind-boggling feats are possible.
Kaor, Paul!
Besides what Stirling said, I might have added that the shock of electricity Arnfeld inflicted on "Dzuga" disrupted the control and concentration that being needed for maintaining his false appearance.
Ad astra! Sean
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