Aliens ("Gugen-something"?), Ability to Influence Minds, Teleport, Escaped Captive

[Dave Lindquist]

I can't remember if this is a short story in a collection, or if it is a novel in it's own right.

However, it is basically about an alien race that is invading earth (I think they may have represented themselves as good guys to fool people initially?) -- but they have some sort of ability to teleport, control minds, etc. I think they had a name like 'goog-something'... "Gugen-something"?

I can't remember a lot of the plot, but I remember:

• He ends up in the hands of the aliens, and escapes, but because of the aliens abilities he is now 'suspect' even after escaping (i.e., the escape was rigged, and he is controlled). I think no-one has ever before escaped?
  
• He ends up going into a highly secure area (of the "earth high command" or something similar) in order to foil a plot by the aliens, and ends up realizing he is being subtly influenced by them to set off a bomb and destroy the entire "high command" structure. (Incidentally, this kind of proves out their suspicions of him, but he overcomes the 'control'.)
• At the very end of the story, he's on a tropical island somewhere -- sort of 'retired', and the 'high command' finds him. They intend to take him back for questioning, but "he casts his mind back to the method the aliens used for teleporting" and he is suddenly somewhere different.

I don't remember exactly when I would have read this, but perhaps late 90s, early 2000s?

I kind of think it had an 'Agent of Vega' / "James H. Schmitz" feel to it? (But there are more than a few of that era that might fit the bill.)

Any hints or ideas?

Thanks!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I remember one with some similarities (and a lot of differences), but the aliens in the novel I remember were called the Syrax.

 

[Dave Lindquist]

You are thinking of "The I Inside" by Alan Dean Foster -- an excellent work in it's own right! (Though his crowning work has to be the 'Journeys of the Catechist' trilogy -- but I digress.)

That book did have teleporting aliens, but they were pacifistic and were never the protagonist's captor (they had created him -- he was a bio-engineered human with Syrax abilities).

The book I am looking for (or short story -- might have been part of a collection) has a very different feel.

But thanks anyway for the suggestion!

 

[David Evil Overlord]

That's the one I was thinking of. Couldn't remember title or author, but I could remember a lot of the plot, and the name of the aliens...