"Now look, Farrow----"
"Steve, don't forget for the moment that you're the only known Mekstrom
Carrier."
"In other words your parents are due for the treatment next?"
"Oh, I was most thorough. Both of them are in the final stages right
now. I'm sure that anything you did to the joint will only be added to
by the time they get to the walking stage. And also anything you did
they'll feel well repaid."
"I didn't do anything for them."
"You provided them with Mekstrom bodies," she said simply.
"They took to it willingly?"
"Yes. As soon as they were convinced by watching me and my strength.
They knew what it would be like, but they were all for it."
"You've been a very busy girl," I told her.
She just nodded. Then she looked up at me with troubled eyes and asked,
"What are you going to do now, Steve?"
"I'm going to haul the whole shebang down like Samson in the Temple."
"A lot of innocent people are going to get hurt if you do that."
"I can't very well find a cave in Antarctica and hide," I replied
glumly.
"Think a bit, Steve. Could either side afford to let you walk into New
Washington with the living proof of your Mekstrom Body?"
#Didn't stop 'em before,# I thought angrily. #And it seems to me that
both sides were sort of urging me to go and do something that would
uncover the other side.#
"Not deep enough," said Farrow. "That was only during the early phases.
Go back to the day when you didn't know what was going on."
I grunted sourly, "Look, Farrow, tell me. Why must I fumble my way
through this as I've fumbled through everything else?"
"Because only by coming to the conclusion in your own way will you be
convinced that someone isn't lying to you. Now, think it over, Steve."
It made sense. Even if I came to the wrong conclusion, I'd believe it
more than if someone had told me. Farrow nodded, following my thoughts.
Then I plunged in:
#First we have a man who is found to be a carrier of Mekstrom's Disease.
He doesn't know anything about the disease. Right?# (Farrow nodded
slowly.) #So now the Medical Center puts an anchor onto their carrier by
sicking an attractive dame on his trail. Um--# At this point I went into
a bit of a mental whirly-around trying to find an answer to one of the
puzzlers. Farrow just looked at me with a non-leading expression,
waiting. I came out of the merry-go-round after six times around the
circuit and went on:
#I don't know all the factors. Obviously, Catherine had to lead me fast
because we had to marry before she contracted the disease from me. But
there's a discrepancy, Farrow. The little blonde receptionist caught it
in twenty-four hours--?#
"Steve," said Farrow, "this is one I'll have to explain, since you're
not a medical person. The period of incubation depends upon the type of
contact. You actually bit the receptionist. That put blood contact into
it. You didn't draw any blood from Catherine."
"We were pretty close," I said with a slight reddening of the ears.
"From a medical standpoint, you were not much closer to Catherine than
you have been to me, or Dr. Thorndyke. You were closer to Thorndyke and
me, say, than you've been to many of the incidental parties along the
path of our travels."
"Well, let that angle go for the moment. Anyway, Catherine and I had to
marry before the initial traces were evident. Then I'd be in the
position of a man whose wife had contracted Mekstrom's Disease on our
honeymoon, whereupon the Medical Center would step in and cure her, and
I'd be in the position of being forever grateful and willing to do
anything that the Medical Center wanted me to do. And as a poor
non-telepath, I'd probably never learn the truth. Right?"
"So far," she said, still in a noncommittal tone.
"So now we crack up along the Highway near the Harrison place. The
Highways take her in because they take any victim in no matter what. I
also presume from what's gone on that Catherine is a high enough
telepath to conceal her thinking and so to become an undercover agent in
the midst of the Highways organization. And at this point the long long
trail takes a fork, doesn't it? The Medical Center gang did not know
about the Highways in Hiding until Catherine and I barrelled into it end
over end."
Farrow's face softened, and although she said nothing I knew I was on
the right track.
#So at this point,# I went on silently, #Medical Center found themselves
in a mild quandary. They could hardly put another woman on my trail
because I was already emotionally involved with the missing
Catherine--and so they decided to use me in another way. I was shown
enough to keep me busy, I was more or less urged to go track down the
Highways in Hiding for the Medical Center. After all, as soon as I'd
made the initial discovery, Phelps and his outfit shouldn't have needed
any more help.#
"A bit more thinking, Steve. You've come up with that answer before."
#Sure. Phelps wanted me to take my tale to the Government. About this
secret Highway outfit. But if neither side can afford to have the secret
come out, how come--?# I pondered this for a long time and admitted that
it made no sense to me. Finally Farrow shook her head and said,
"Steve, I've got to prompt you now and then. But remember that I'm
trying to make you think it out yourself. Now consider: You are running
an organization that must be kept secret. Then someone learns the secret
and starts heading for the Authorities. What is your next move?"
"Okay," I replied. "So I'm stupid. Naturally, I pull in my horns, hide
my signs, and make like nothing was going on."
"So stopping the advance of your organization, which is all that Phelps
really can expect."
I thought some more. #And the fact that I was carrying a story that
would get me popped into the nearest hatch for the incipient paranoid
made it all right?#
She nodded.
"And now?" she asked me.
"And now I'm living proof of my story. Is that right?"
"Right. And Steve, do not forget for one moment that the only reason
that you're still alive is because you are valuable to both sides alive.
Dead, you're only good for a small quantity of Mekstrom Inoculation."
"Don't follow," I grunted. "As you say, I'm no medical person."
"Alive, your hair grows and must be cut. You shave and trim off beard.
Your fingernails are pared. Now and then you lose a small bit of hide or
a few milliliters of blood. These are things that, when injected under
the skin of a normal human, makes them Mekstrom. Dead, your ground up
body would not provide much substance."
"Pleasant prospect," I growled. "So what do I do to avert this future?"
"Steve, I don't know. I've done what I can for you. I've effected the
cure and I've done it in safety; you're still Steve Cornell."