Professor Andrew Jansen's claim to fame was sending a robot rocketship to Mars. The rocketship returned with rust spore samples from the surface of Mars.

Jansen's assistant, Michael Gordon, in debt to a local gangster, Ace Marlowe, gave the spores to the gangster to pay for his debt. When Marlowe realized that the rust spores were destroying the country, he tried to stop Gordon. Gordon, in an effort to protect himself, doused Marlowe with spores killing him. He had also accidentally infected himself with the spores and died as well.

Jansen, apparently, was not found culpable and has never appeared again.