He moved along the highway in a passion of ultimate resolve.  In the rest of the world, time passed without knowledge of his emotional state.  The rest of the world was suffering emotional agonies of its own.

The United States had become popular among peoples who disliked all things American except those they were given free, and who continued to dislike the givers.  Now though, the United States had been invaded from space by creatures using weapons of unprecedented type and effect.  If the United States were conquered, there was no other nation likely to remain free.  So a great deal of anti-Americanism faded under pressure of an ardent desire for America to be successful in its self-defense.

Moreover, anticipating other alien landings which could take place anywhere, the United States offered to share its stock of atom bombs with any nation so invaded.  American popularity increased.  The fact that the USSR made no such proposal also had its effect.  The United States invited scientists of every country to help in solving the menace of the terror beam, and committed itself to share any discoveries for defense against it with all the world.  Again there was an improvement in the public image of the United States abroad.

But Lockley knew nothing of this.  His pocket radio no longer existed to give him news.  It had been rebuilt into something else, whose most conspicuous parts were cheese and nutmeg graters, slung over his shoulder as he marched.  But if he had known of changes in the popularity of his country, he wouldn’t have been interested.  He could fix his mind only on one subject and matters related to it.

He tramped along the highway, possessed by a cold demon of hatred.  He was on foot for lack of a car.  He was unarmed.  At the moment he believed that all the rest of humanity was disarmed, in effect if not in fact.  So he had no plans, only an infinite hatred.

But because he would have to pass through terror beams to get at those he meant to destroy, he realized that it was necessary to make sure that he would be able to pass through them, that his equipment for reaching Boulder Lake was in good order.  It was still turned on.  He turned it off to be economical of its batteries.  He went on, thinking of only one subject, examining every possibility for revenge with a passionate patience, undiscouraged because one idea after another was plainly impossible, but continuing obsessively to think of others.

He smelled the foetid odor, which cut through his absorption because of its connotations.  He turned on his device and went doggedly ahead.  He knew he had entered a terror beam by the faint perceptions which came through the cloud of ions his instrument produced.  Then they ceased.  He knew that the beam had been cut off.  He heard a motor rev up.  A car or truck had stopped beyond the road-blocking beam and waited for it to be cut off, as it had been.

Lockley stepped into the woods hating the vehicle bitterly as it approached, but wanting to save destruction for those where Jill had been taken.