The book is a compilation of two novelettes. In the first, a heretofore unknown phenomenon mystifies its discoverers and then astounds them with its subtle power. Global manipulations are made possible by the power of the discovery. As humanity is swept under the spell of these men, the manipulators find that their own fates have been sealed by powers of a far more sinister origin. The second book is the short "The Drug". "The voice wafted over the rooftops of the buildings that covered the low-lying westward section that lay ahead of them. The couple looked at one another, each face primed to posit a question, unsure of what it should be. They walked a hundred yards further, descending to a flat section of the road, and another voice came along to them in the cold wind. The answer to the first call chanted the same words. Up overhead, the sinking sky smothered them with the dark gray drabness of a late northern fall evening. Compilation has approx 63,000 words. (Some violent content) Short index