Transcriber's note:
This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction September1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.copyright on this publication was renewed.
It was like a mirage in reverse, this strange island off the Californiacoast—it couldn't always be seen, but it was there—in Time.
Sinister Paradise
By Robert Moore Williams
"There's the island, Parker!" Retch called.
Bill Parker shifted the controls of the 'copter and the big craft swungin the direction Retch was pointing. Squinting his eyes against the sunglare rising from the Pacific, Parker clearly saw the island. It wasmiles away as yet but it swam like a mirage suspended just above thesurface of the sea.
The island was not large—Parker guessed it as probably being less thantwo miles in circumference—but he could make out a fringe of treesalong the shore and a central peak rising like a cliff in the center.
"I've found it again!" Retch spoke with fierce satisfaction—clenchedfists. Parker heard the indrawn hiss of breath following the words; ahiss that seemed to hold[Pg 126] a promise for the future. Revenge, vengeance,triumph, or something else? Parker could not determine what emotionalovertone had found expression in Retch's words. But the emotionalovertone was there. Out of the corner of his eyes, Parker glanced at theman sitting in the seat next to him. What he saw did not please him.
Retch was big. He had the muscular build of a prize fighter. The scarover his left cheekbone did not add to the attractiveness of hisappearance. He did not, in Parker's opinion, look like the scientist hehad claimed to be.
Parker shrugged such thoughts aside. What difference did it make whatRetch was, or the nature of his business here? He had paid chartercharges on the big helicopter.
"There it is, Parker!" Retch almost screamed the words. As he pointedagain toward the island in the far distance, Parker caught a glimpse ofa pistol in a shoulder holster under the man's arm.
The sight of the gun caused a split second of alarm in the big pilot. Hehad not known that Retch was armed. Then the alarm subsided. Parkerpressed his left arm down against his body, assuring himself that hisown gun was where it belonged.
The woman, Mercedes Valdar, seemed to catch some of Retch's excitement.She leaned forward across Retch's shoulder to stare at the island.Parker caught another whiff of the musky perfume that she used. Henoticed again what he had realized the first time he met her—that inany man's language she was a beauty. Aquiline face, smouldering blackeyes, high cheek bones, a delicate brown complexion that hinted atIndian blood back several generations in the past, she looked likesomething out of an exotic movie. The slacks and sport coat that shewore accentuated the fact that she was a woman.
Parker was aware again of the enigma of h