The Puppet Masters Page #3

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Get him to the lab.

What does all this mean?

Top line is Sam's heart rate.

Bottom is the alien's.

They're identical. Brain waves too.

Their nervous systems are linked.

Pulse is 120. Blood pressure

140/90.Temperature 103.

Creature's running him hot.

Move the fluoroscope

to the right profile, please.

What's this?

An electromagnetic signal. At first

we thought it was just interference.

It seems to be coming

from the parasite.

- You were right, then. Radar.

- Yeah.

- Let me hear it.

- It's too high a frequency.

Wake him up. I'm going in there.

Sir, it's not a good idea.

I don't think it's safe in there.

It's Sam, Lawrence.

- Sir?

- It's all right.

Wake him up, Jim.

Bring me that stool.

Can you hear me?

Sam isn't here any more, Andrew.

You know me?

And your dead wife.

And Mary.

You wouldn't believe the fantasies

my host has about you, Mary.

- Would you like me to tell you?

- No, we would not.

I will ask the questions,

and if you do not cooperate,

I'll administer electric shocks

and you will die.

I will stop the heart of this host

and it will die.

Get him back!

- He's gone flatline!

- 2cc of ephinephrine!

2cc of ephinephrine, stat.

It's back.

Hold that ephinephrine.

My God, it has total control.

Sam, why have they come here?

What do they want?

I warned you.

Shock it.

I acknowledge you can hurt me, but

each shock shortens your son's life.

Do you understand?

Of course I understand.

Now you answer me.

Why are you here?

Our previous hosts ceased to be

useful.

You are stronger than they were.

You will last longer.

Right. How many are you?

One.

There may be semantic differences.

Its concept of identity

may be different.

No.

No.

How many are you?

One.

Sam, do you have any idea

how many of them there are?

It was thinking "one".

It doesn't know why you keep...

Always giving orders, aren't you,

Andrew?

Always telling people how to run

their lives.

Maybe that's why you're so lonely.

Did you ever think of that?

Maybe that's why

your son resents you so much.

You won't be lonely when you're

one of us. No-one will be.

For God's sake,

tell us what you want.

Peace.

Say goodbye to your son, Andrew.

Jesus. It's killing him.

Get it off him!

It's gone.

Welcome back.

I'm sorry you had to

go through that, son.

Those things I said, Dad.

- It wasn't me talking.

- Come on.

Do you remember what happened?

I was aware. I was conscious of what

I was doing and what was happening.

It was like having one of those

dreams when you're paralysed.

No matter how much I tried

to move or scream, I just couldn't.

It had total control over me.

I was like an open book to them.

They could read everything in my

mind. My thoughts, fears, memories.

Did they have thoughts?

I remember something about...

...their ship...

It wasn't a ship, though.

It was like a nerve centre.

A hive.

Had to get back to it...

...to share information

with the others.

You know where it is? Do you?

I'm not sure where, really.

Get some rest.

Get some rest.

Let me know as soon as

I can try again.

Say goodbye to your son, Andrew.

That's enough of that. Take it off.

Sir.

The parasites run their hosts

at a high body temperature,

which gives them

an identifiable heat signature.

We have been able to track

that heat signature

through thermal imaging from

satellite sweeps and reconnaissance.

Run the RPV recording.

This is Ambrose, and those red areas

are creature-controlled.

Give me maximum magnification here,

please.

I want to show you something.

These are human beings

with creatures on their back.

- What's the green dot?

- A human being without a creature.

He's surrounded

by parasite-controlled hosts.

And now he too has a parasite

on his back.

I'm not... I'm not coming.

I'm sorry, Dad.

Get this off me.

Everybody, just get off of me.

It's OK.

- Get it off me!

- It's not on you any more.

It's not on you any more.

OK? You're OK.

- You're OK.

- I can still feel it.

It's gone. It's gone.

You're all right.

Have we been in contact

with the governor?

What about the lowa National Guard?

They will have been infiltrated.

You have to go in on a federal level.

Our nearest troops are the first

infantry division at Fort Riley.

- How quickly can we move on this?

- You'll have a force in 12 hours.

I recommend we go in at night to take

advantage of the thermal imaging.

Do it.

Wait. I see something.

We're going in.

Go.

Sh*t.

- Gentlemen.

- What's this?

- This is a thermal image feed.

- It's from Lieutenant Abbey's unit.

They're using children?

You cannot think of them as children.

They are the enemy.

General?

- They're here to see you, sir.

- In the office. I'll be in soon.

This way, men.

We've lost satellite link-up, but

we have Lieutenant Abbey on audio.

The situation's under control now.

We'll bring the children

into the holding area

then move on to sector seven.

Thank you.

So far so good.

What's going on in here?

Captain Earley, sir.

Iowa National Guard, Camp Dodge.

We're here to provide backup.

I didn't hear anything

about you being called in.

- Get me Washington on the line.

- I'd rather you didn't.

Did you find a way

to kill them?

No, not yet. We're trying everything.

Different bacteria, viruses,

radiation.

But so far we've found nothing

that doesn't kill the host.

See the one looking at us? He's

wearing the slug we took off you.

They've been sitting like that

for hours.

Yeah, they're merging. It's how

they communicate with each other.

- Yeah?

- They exchange chemical signatures.

We're ready, Dr Graves.

We should have thought of that.

Ants communicate in the same way.

Where did you get

the second parasite?

Just watch.

We set up a keyboard

in case they want to talk to us.

Vargas, note the time.

- Does the old man know about this?

- He wanted to make sure.

Here we go again.

This is how they reproduce.

A second adult parasite in minutes.

Vargas, get the old man on the line.

Watch what they do to the little one.

The new one knows me.

I've got General Morgan reporting in.

Andrew Nivens here, general.

How is it going down there?

It was touch and go for a while,

but we think the worst is over now.

- It's your son.

- Hang on, Sam.

We've got 70% of the area contained

- and kept casualties fairly low.

- Thank you.

Would you take off your shirt

and turn your back to the camera?

- Is this a joke?

- No, it's not. Take off your shirt.

I don't take my orders from you.

Order him to take off his shirt. Sam,

go on.

I'm sorry, general. Would you

humour us for a moment, please?

God.

- There's no signal coming in.

- What's going on?

The transmission isn't lost.

The transmission has been cut because

General Morgan has been taken,

and we can assume

that his troops are now our enemy.

We're getting reports

that the situation's been contained.

The reports are faked.

We're being manipulated.

I have just been told

that their numbers are increasing

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