She was silent a moment.
Then she said, without emotion, “Most likely. It would have been most interesting to see what sort of biological reactions the Darruui surgeons are capable of building.”
A flash of savage, blind hatred rippled through Harris-Khülom. The bitch ! he thought. He had been raised to hate Medlins anyway; they were the ancient ancestral enemies of his people, galactic rivals of the Darruui for four thousand years, perhaps more. The mere sight of a Medlin was enough to stir rage in a Darruui. Only the fact that this one was clad in the flesh of a handsome Earthgirl had kept Harris from feeling his normal revulsion for all things Medlin.
But now it surged forth at this revelation of her calm and callous biological “curiosity.” It was almost blasphemous for someone so lovely to speak so hideously.
He wondered how far her callousness extended. If he made a move, would she gun him down?
And how good was her aim?
Probably too good, especially at point-blank range. He mastered his anger and said, “That’s a pretty cold-blooded way of thinking, Beth.”
“Maybe. I’m sorry if my frankness offends you.”
“I’ll bet you are.”
She smiled at him and said in a gentler voice, “Let’s forget about that, shall we? There are a few things I want to tell you.”
“Such as?”
“For one: did you know that you’re fundamentally disloyal to the Darruui cause?”
Harris laughed harshly, thinking with fierce nostalgia of his homeland.
“You’re crazy!”
“Afraid not. Listen to me, Abner, and see if I’m not telling the truth. You’re desperately homesick for Darruu, aren’t you?”
“Admitted.”
“You never wanted to come here in the first place, but the assignment was given to you, and you took it. You happened to have been born into a caste that has certain obligations of public service imposed on it, and you’re fulfilling those obligations. But you don’t really know very much about what it is you’re doing here on Earth, and for half a plugged unit you’d give the whole thing up and go back to Darruu on the next ship out.”
“Very clever,” he said stonily, inwardly realizing the truth of her words, though refusing to let her see that. “Now give me my horoscope for the next six months,” he said in a tone of heavy sarcasm.
“That’s easy enough. First, you’ll come to our headquarters and learn what my people hope to accomplish on Earth…”
“I know that one already.”
“You think you do,” she said smoothly. “But all you really know is what your own propaganda ministers have told you. Don’t interrupt. You’ll learn the real reason why we’re on Earth. Once you’ve come to see what that is, you’ll join us and help to protect Earth against the menace represented by Darruu.”
He laughed. “I’ll turn against my own world?”
“You will.”
“And why, precisely, are you so sure that I’ll do all these incredible things?”
“Because it’s in your personality makeup to do them,” she said. “You can’t help doing them, once the right motivation is supplied. Besides, you’re falling in love.”
“With you?” Harris snapped. “Don’t flatter yourself, girl.”
“I’m speaking objectively. I know your own mind better than you do.”
“And you can stand there and tell me that I’m falling in love with a lot of fake female flesh plastered over a scrawny and repulsive Medlin body? Hah!”
She remained calm, still wearing that serene smile, and not replying.
Harris measured the distance between them, wondering whether she would use the weapon after all if he jumped at her. A disrupter broiled the neural tissue; if she got him in the brain or in any key part of the body, death would be instantaneous and fairly ghastly. Even a swiping shot across a limb would leave him crippled.
He decided to risk it.
He was a Servant of the Spirit, he reminded himself. He was here under certain obligations, as even the Medlin wench seemed to know. His assignment was to kill Medlins, not to let himself be killed by them. He had nothing to lose by making the attempt—and nothing but a scar on his soul to gain if he let her frighten him with that shiny little disruptor.
In a soft voice he said, “You didn’t answer me, Beth—or whatever your name really is. Do you actually think I’d fall in love with something like you?”
“Why not?”
“Do Darruui and Medlins ever feel anything but hate for one another? Medlins are physically disgusting to all Darruui. You know that.”
“Biologically we’re Earthers now, not Medlins or Darruui. It’s possible that there could be an attraction between us.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he admitted. “After all, I did ask you to cover your body so it wouldn’t distract me. And I reacted the same way to dancing girls in the night club with Carver.” He smiled and said, “I’m all confused. I need some time to think things over.”
“Of course. You…”
He sprang from the chair and covered the ten feet that separated them in two big bounds, expecting at any moment to feel the searing blast of the disruptor frying his nervous system. He stretched out one hand desperately to grab the wrist of the arm that held the disruptor.
He succeeded in deflecting the weapon toward the ceiling. She did not even attempt to fire. He closed on her wrist, tightening until he could feel the delicate bones grinding against one another.
“Drop it!” he grated.
The tiny pistol dropped to the tiled floor. With a deft flick of his toe, Harris kicked the disruptor out of sight un-der the bed. Pressed against her, he stared into eyes blazing with anger.
The anger melted suddenly into passion as their bodies pressed tight. Automatically he tensed as he saw the warm, beckoning look in her eyes. Then a surge of cautious fear went through him.
She’s trying to trap me with her body, he thought. Taking advantage of these damned confused Earther sexdrives they built into me.
He stepped back, not willing to have such close contact with her, afraid to let himself be lured.
He reached for his own gun. She was too dangerous to be allowed to live, he thought. Beautiful as she was, it was safer, wiser, to kill her right now, while he had the chance to do it. She’s just a Medlin, he argued. A deadly one.
He started to draw the weapon from his tunic. Suddenly she lifted her hand, moved it in a quick arc upward. There was the twinkling of something bright glittering between her fingers.
She laughed.
Then Harris recoiled, helpless, as the bolt of a stunner struck him in the face like a club against the back of his skull. She had moved fast, much too fast for him. He had hardly even seen the motion as she pulled the concealed weapon from its hiding place.
She fired again.
He struggled to get his gun out, but his muscles would not obey.
He toppled forward, paralyzed.
FOUR
Harris felt a teeth-chattering chill sweep through him as he began to come awake. There was a hammering back of his eyeballs, and a sick hollowness in his stomach. The stunner-bolt had temporarily overloaded his motor neurons, and the body’s escape from the frustration of paralysis was unconsciousness.
Now he was waking, and the strength was ebbing slowly and painfully back into his muscles. His entire body felt drained, depleted.
The light of morning streamed palely in through a depolarized window on the left wall of the unfamiliar room in which he found himself. He was not bound in any way. He felt stiff and sore all over, every muscle cramped and congested. He wondered where he had spent the night. Not in any bed, certainly. Probably right here on the cold floor of this room.