Professor Jim Tanner, a biochemist, discovers evidence of a person with psychic abilities among his co-workers in a research laboratory. His colleagues include geneticist Margery Lansing, physicist Carl Melkinen, biologist Talbot Scott and chairman Norman Van Zandt, all working for Navy liaison Arthur Nordlund.
After a warning from Professor Henry Hallson that one among them possesses a super-intelligence capable of destruction and mind control, Hallson is found murdered with the name "Adam Hart" scrawled nearby. The police make routine checks of the backgrounds of the members of the committee of which Hallson was a member, and Tanner immediately becomes the prime suspect in his murder when it is found that he has apparently lied about his distinguished academic credentials. In fact, all records documenting his past have been erased by some inexplicable method. Hallson's widow Sally Hallson says that Adam Hart is the name of a childhood friend. Tanner visits Hallson's hometown and learns that Adam Hart is a superhuman, with different people providing different descriptions of his appearance, and others still obeying commands that Hart gave them years earlier.
As Tanner tries to uncover the superhuman, his associates are methodically murdered. Talbot Scott, panicked by what is happening, is eventually shot in a confrontation with the police. In a final showdown, Tanner confronts the apparently undefeatable Adam Hart, who is revealed to be Arthur Nordlund. Hart's psychic assault awakens Tanner's own latent psychic powers, and Tanner kills Hart instead. Tanner realizes that he was the superhuman uncovered by Hallson's tests, and that Hart was trying to eliminate any competition from others like himself.
What is Tanner trying to do?
uncover the superhuman