Forbidden Worlds #58

Doctor Wallace Marlin, a brilliant zoologist who's spent twenty-five years in isolation, has developed a revolutionary technique to unlock animal intelligence through brain operations and other scientific methods—and he's ready to demonstrate his extraordinary results. When a skeptical visitor meets Marlin's intellectually awakened creations, including the animals Simba, Steve, Lola, Baldy, and Rover, the demonstration becomes a battle between observable fact and human disbelief. With Marlin's death leaving his creations to fend for themselves in a world unprepared to accept them, each of these newly sentient beings must navigate survival on their own terms.

Linda's life has been haunted by a mysterious man, Mr. Jones, who keeps appearing at crucial moments—saving her from illness, danger, and despair—all while refusing to explain himself. On the eve of her 25th birthday, he finally reveals the truth: they were husband and wife in an advanced civilization, and a catastrophic accident with his time-travel machine sent her hurtling into this world as a baby, forcing him to wait a quarter-century for her to reach the age at which she can return home. Now, with the clock striking midnight on her birthday, the secret that has dominated her entire existence is about to be laid bare.

Two brilliant chemists, Arthur Hanlon and Lief Svenson, independently discover an identical formula to cure the common cold—a remarkable coincidence that becomes far more unsettling when they meet in Stockholm. As the men grow acquainted, they begin experiencing identical, inexplicable changes in their tastes and emotions, from sudden phobias to shared aversions, forcing them to confront the possibility that something far darker links their matching discoveries.