Lost Yesterday

Chemist Wilbur Smot takes a memory-erasing potion and research from Brisbane Pharmaceuticals to Poweressence, whose leaders Rubin and Beatrice Dolomo plan to exploit it against members and witnesses. When Wilbur warns them of its effects, they force him to drink it, and his memory regresses to infancy. Recovering from an earlier radiation injury, Remo is sent by Harold W. Smith to help racketeering witness Gennaro “Drums” Drumola; Drumola’s memory loss defeats the case against California mob boss Angelo Muscamente. Grain-company secretary Gladys Smith also cannot recall her testimony. The Dolomos’ attempt to dose Ralph through a letter fails; he testifies that Beatrice ordered the alligator purchase, and a jury convicts the Dolomos of attempted murder.

In other cases, Jameson and diamond swindler Bill Pollenberg are acquitted after their witnesses lose their memories. Remo questions the defendants, then swims to Muscamente’s yacht and learns the mob boss believes Poweressence’s positive forces caused the losses; Remo recognizes he is not lying. The Dolomos plan to attack the unnamed sitting President and dose lawyer Barry Glidden when he discovers Rubin treating a letter. Their Servants of Zor campaign reaches White House mailroom clerks and a President’s Midwest appearances; several people regress after contact with tainted correspondence. Poweressence recruit Joan gives a treated letter to Air Force Colonel Dale Armbruster, who regresses at the controls and crashes the President’s aircraft in Ohio; the crash kills American servicemen and a Senator who had borrowed the plane, and the President is not aboard.

Later testimony from an unnamed Poweressence member describes delivering an envelope without knowing that the recipient flew the President’s plane; the source does not identify her as Joan. Kathy Bowen falsely announces his death and is arrested for attempted murder. At an Oval Office meeting, the President’s description of a momentary lapse prompts Smith to suspect that the same substance may have reached him. The source identifies no confirmed progression beyond that lapse. Smith recalls a deceased President’s order to start CURE in the early 1960s and privately considers killing the incumbent if childhood regression becomes certain; he also asks Remo to retrieve the substance.

The ending leaves the exposure, the retrieval and the President’s fate unresolved. Chiun and Remo each conceal important facts: Chiun knows Remo has not regained control of the outer skin layers through which the substance might transfer, while Remo withholds Smith’s plan to kill the President and himself if necessary.