Out of the Unknown

On the way home from school, fifteen-year-old Diana was attacked and raped. Five years later, after extensive therapy, she married a trendy young photographer, Eric Carver. The doctor told Eric not to hurry the consummation of the marriage, but to be patient and sympathetic. It was not too hard; Eric would have done anything for his beautiful Diana. One of the things he did do for her was to buy a house. It was not a place he cared for much, and it cost a fortune to modernise. But from the moment they were first shown over it, Diana just knew she had to live there. Just like that - had to. Their first sight of the ghost came when Eric developed some photographs he had taken of his wife in the garden. In every print a man could be seen standing in the garden. At first Eric rationalised it as some unnoticed Peeping-Tom. But when Diana started to sleep-walk, and the evil-looking ghost showed up in a lot more prints, Eric called in Dr. Phillimore of the National Psychical Research Association.

Allen Meredith is a shy, withdrawn man whose genius as a research physicist has for years been exploited by enterprising tycoon, Jack Gregory. So long as there was money enough for his research, he was happy. But not so his wife Ann, the only person with whom Allen has found the courage to develop a relationship. To Ann, tycoon Gregory has come to represent the arch jackal.. One day, working on an advanced development of the electro-encephalograph, Allen stumbles on a fantastic new aspect of the machine: mind transference. It seems at first of little more than academic interest - until he explains it to Ann. To her it is obvious: use it to get some of the money out of which Gregory has cheated them over the years - say £100,000. Allen is shocked, only overcoming his reluctance when Ann points out that it is their only chance of ever having any money and, anyway, this will be the ideal test for his new discovery. Accordingly, Gregory is coerced, drugged and attached to the electro-encephalograph machine. Ann then attaches Allen to the machine, sets the dials and switches on....

To all appearances Adam Crosse is a normal, well-integrated member of society; respected provincial journalist, nice new-town home, attractive wife, jovial disposition. But in fact, behind his front of self-assurance, Crosse is sensitive, frustrated, introspective - a mass of neuroses and self-protective fantasies. Never a Romeo, is sex-life is now a failure; he is a hypochondriac and tranquilizer addict; it needs just the one final nudge to push him over the edge. That nudge comes with his chance discovery that his wife, Lydia, has a lover - and worse, that she evinces no trace of remorse over his finding out. Crushing his self-esteem, she shrugs off the affair as a necessity to be blamed on his sexual inadequacy. Casually she tells him to adjust the best way he can and now please to get out of her kitchen as she has the Saturday morning cake to bake.... The next thing Adam Crosse really knows is that he has smashed in her skull with a monkey-wrench from the garage.

Psychiatrist Frank Bowers is thrilled to be returning home after six months in hospital following a motor accident. Dr. Liam Moore was hesitant about letting him go; although physically completely recovered Frank is still somewhat disturbed mentally. However, perhaps the best therapy will be for him to spend a month or two quietly with his adored wife Penny at the cottage she bought while he was in hospital. He does not tell her he is coming; he wants his return to be a wonderful surprise. He arrives at the cottage, goes to kiss Penny. But she repulses him, says she does not know him, calls for help to a man whom she says is her husband, Dr. Frank Bowers.

The sound of a radio bleep, and a group of men spring instantly awake. They are in a remote shepherds hut; they are heavily armed. A guide, Ira, a girl with a foreign accent, arrives and leads them across mountain country to a point where they can gain secret access to a vast complex of tunnels. But why are they there? Where and what is the place? They know they are part of as Strike Force, one of a new fighting elite. Their guide tells them it is a hydro-electric plant, so presumably they are to sabotage the place. But are they? Even their leader, Captain Brinson, is unsure. They know they have received a new form of subliminal briefing, and that they will remember their orders in response to fixed signals over the radio.