A Plague of Demons

THE SECRET MASTERS OF THE WORLD—
WERE A PACK OF WOLVES

When John Bravais was sent on a secret mission to observe a war in North Africa he found out more than it was safe for him to know—even after he had secretly been surgically transformed so that he was as strong as a Bolo tank, and nearly as tough: Wolf-like aliens, invisible to the ordinary eye, were harvesting the brains of the fallen fighters! Bravais might have become the Ultimate Warrior, but still he was only one man against A Plague of Demons.

An alien probe has randomly selected a human to test to his limits and find how serious an opponent the human race might be. They have picked the wrong man. Test to Destruction.

A ship is lost in action and only one has survived the alien attack. He alone knows the secret that can stop the aliens in their tracks, but his own side is convinced he is a traitor or worse; he is about to face his ignominious end, his End as a Hero.

One officer has kept a lonely vigil on an isolated planet for years, watching for the alien enemy, forgotten by the bureaucracy that sent him there—then the enemy arrived, and the alarm signal had to be sent, in spite of the alien ship looming over the colony. Thunderhead.

Includes one full-length novel, five short novels, and more in an action-packed volume of the very best by the master of interstellar adventure.

"Spare, clean prose style and muscular storytelling technique . . . when the final word is read, the reader comes away with both a sense of completion and a desire for the tale to go on ... forever, if possible." —David Weber

"You're about to have fun." —David Drake

"Laumer is a master ..." —Seattle Times

"Tautly written and endless suspense . . . excellent. ..." —VOYA

"Keith Laumer is one of science fiction's most adept creators. . ." —Savannah News-Press

Cover Art by Richard Martin

Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, February 2003

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laumer, Keith, 1925–1993

A plague of demons and other stories / by Keith Laumer.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7434-3588-5 (pbk.)
1. Human-alien encounters—Fiction. 2. Science fiction, American. I. Title: Plague
of demons and other stories. II. Title.

PS3562.A84 P56 2003
813'.54—dc21
2002034186

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-3588-8
ISBN-10: 0-7434-3588-5

Copyright © 2003 by Baen Books.

A Plague of Demons was first serialized as The Hounds of Hell in If magazine (Nov-Dec., 1964) and reissued as a novel in 1965 by Berkley. "Thunderhead" was first published in Galaxy in April, 1967. "End as a Hero" was first published in Galaxy in June, 1963. "Doorstep" was first published in Galaxy in February, 1961. "Test to Destruction" was first published in Dangerous Visions (Harlan Ellison, editor), Doubleday 1967. "The Star-Sent Knaves" (aka: "Time Thieves") was first published in Worlds of Tomorrow in June, 1963. "Greylorn" was first published in Amazing in April, 1959. "Of Death What Dreams" was first published in Worlds of Tomorrow #24 (1970) and then reissued in Five Fates, published by Doubleday, 1970.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
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KEITH LAUMER:
THE CREATOR OF RETIEF AND
THE MASTER OF SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURE

"Spare, clean prose style and muscular storytelling technique . . . I consider him to be one of the three or four authors who had the greatest influence on me throughout my life, as both a reader and a writer."
—David Weber

"For those who are confronting Laumer for the first time . . . I envy you: you are about to discover a prose stylist whose single aim is to pleasure you."
—Harlan Ellison

"One of the most productive and popular writers of science fiction."
—Ben Bova

[Laumer's Retief stories are] "Some of the funniest, cleverest, and most (unfortunately) realistic stories ever written about life at the sharp end of international relations. You're about to have fun."
—David Drake

"[Laumer's Dinosaur Beach is] unrivalled not only in its class, but in a class by itself." —Gordon R. Dickson

"[Laumer's Retief is] a James Bond figure among helpless bureaucrats . . . adventure tales that are brisk, light and sardonic. . . ."
—Publishers Weekly

"Laumer is a master of both science fiction and mystery."
—Seattle Times

"[Laumer's Retief stories offer] satirically wild SF adventures . . . improbable plot-twists and slapstick action."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Keith Laumer is one of science fiction's most adept creators . . .  suspenseful action makes this story a first-rate thriller."
—Savannah News-Press

"Hilarious! Swinging! Brilliant!"
—Galaxy

Baen Books by Keith Laumer,
edited by Eric Flint:

Retief!
Odyssey
Keith Laumer: The Lighter Side
A Plague of Demons & Other Stories
The Bolo Series:
The Compleat Bolo

Created by Keith Laumer:

The Honor of the Regiment
The Unconquerable

The Triumphant
by David Weber & Linda Evans

Last Stand
Old Guard
Cold Steel

Bolo Brigade
by William H. Keith, Jr.

Bolo Rising
by William H. Keith, Jr.

Bolo Strike
by William H. Keith, Jr.