The Smiler

At an inquest a man identifies himself as Martin Cole and admits to killing Sanford Smith, claiming that self-described Martians have infiltrated publishing to suppress imaginative fiction that might expose their plans. He explains how agents control submission and persuade or shelve writers, and he reveals a penlike weapon that induces instantaneous heart failure while leaving a cold, fixed smile. As the hearing unfolds, jurors, officers and the coroner adopt the same terrible smile and the coroner dies, after which a newspaperman files an account reporting the sudden heart attack.