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what I'd have done in their place. It was only logical.
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So they expected me to wait, did they? Wait for what, the firing squad?
Well, maybe I wouldn't do it. I felt like laughing when I remembered how
complicated life had seemed back in my own day. There I'd had only one time,
one space, one Jerry Cortland to consider.
And even then I'd been on the rollercoaster with a splinter in the seat of my
pants. Now Jerry
Cortland was dead. He was lying in a heap of dust in a cavern somewhere on
another planet for all
I knew.
Illogical? Oh, sure. For now I was up against something too big for the human
mind to comprehend, really and irrationally I felt cheerful.
I saw another of the pale green oranges floating along the stream and plucked
it out deftly, sank my teeth into it It was alcoholic, in a mildly
exhilarating way. I let the tingling juice run down my throat and
Tow are in great danger," a voice in my brain said coldly and suddenly.
I clapped my free hand to my head and pressed the bone beneath the skin in
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some primitive impulsive attempt to nassage the devils out of my brain. He was
there De iJtalb, Belem with his cold metal gaze looking out through «y eyes
and his cold metal thoughts moving through mine.
"Can you read my mind?" I asked, all but vocally, mak-fcg the question clear
in the front of my mind.
"No. Only when you put your thoughts as clearly as this. Hease try to keep
them clearer. That fruit you are eating ft fogs the mind. Throw it away. I
must consult you now."
-Deliberately I took another deep bite of the alcoholic or-
" ge. No one had invited him into my mind, I thought somewhat incoherently,
"
the Swan Garden looking pleasantly blurred before me. I had no real reason to
trust either De Kalb or Belern. I didn't like the way the Mechandroid could
crawl into my head, pull up a chair and settle down for a free sight-seeing
trip.
If it worked the other way now I'd enjoy a quick round-trip through Topaz'
mind, for instance. She was not only lovely but unpredictable as an ocelot.
I'd have given a good deal to look into her mind. I imagined it would surprise
me. And as for Paynter I knew his type. He had that conviction of absolute
rightness that makes fanatics. He hadn't left me entirely on my own, I was
pretty sure.
"Drop that fruit," the voice in my mind said. "Drop that fruit."
I didn't intend to. I started to flex my elbow to bring the orange up for
another bite but my muscles weren't working very well. They weren't working at
all. My arm went lax, my fingers turned into putty and the orange fell with a
splash back into the stream. Regretfully I watched it bob away.
"Do you see that purple fruit?" the inexorable voice inquired. "There, coming
over the bend. Catch it."
I decided to do nothing.
I found myself plucking a purple object shaped like a cigar from the stream,
lifting it to my mouth, biting off a section. It was succulent too, but
astringent. The giddy elation began to leave me. More soberly I took a second
bite.
"Very good," Belem's disembodied voice said. "I don't want to work that hard
again. It isn't easy to do this. You may need all the strength I can give you
sooner than you think. Don't make me exhaust myself fighting you."
"How do you work it?" I inquired with the front part of my consciousness.
"Where are you, anyhow?
Isn't it crowded in there? Look out for the left lobe it's slippery."
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"That is probably humor," Belem said coldly. "Wasted on a Mechandroid. I have
no intention of telling you how I do this but there is no reason why you
shouldn't know where I am. Exactly where you saw me last. My body remains in
stasis while my mind is in close rapport with yours.
"I can see and hear and feel everything you do. I can read your clearer
thoughts. I can, with a great effort, con-
trol your motor reflexes for a brief time. Whether you like it or not your
fate and mine are now linked until I can effect a separation again."
"For better or worse\" I said wildly. "For richer or poorer I see another
orange coming along;
shall we have one together?"
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