"You're not a what?"
"Never mind. I wouldn't poison even you, if that is what you feared."
Daniel Crowley took up the new container of serum and put a lid on it.
He said, "I got to get going. The guy out in front will get you back to
your rooms. No tricks with him, Buster"--he was talking directly to
Ross--"he's already beat a couple of homicide raps."
* * * * *
Back in their cell-rooms, they found that there was but one guard.
Evidently, the all-out robbery attempt to be held this night involved
practically all of Larry Morazzoni's forces. Beyond that, this guard did
not seem particularly interested in keeping them from talking back and
forth to each other through the peepholes that centered their doors.
After a couple of hours during which time they largely held silence,
immersed in their own thoughts, Dr. Braun called out, "Patricia, Ross, I
should tender my apologies. It was my less than brilliant idea to find
the average man and use him as a guinea pig."
"No apology necessary," Patricia said impatiently. "We all went into it
with open eyes."
"But you were correct, Pat," the doctor said unhappily. "Our common man
turned out to be a Frankenstein monster."
Ross growled, "That's the trouble. It turned out he wasn't our common
man but his brother, whose petty criminal record evidently goes back to
juvenile days."
"Even that doesn't matter," Patricia said testily. "I've about come to
the conclusion that it wouldn't have made any difference _who_ we'd put
in Don's ... I mean Daniel Crowley's position. Man is too near the
animal, as yet at least, to be trusted with such power. Any man."
"Why, Pat," Dr. Braun said doggedly, "I don't quite believe you correct.
For instance, do you feel the same about me? Would I have reacted like
our friend Dan?" He chuckled in deprecation.
"That's my point," she said. "I think you would ... ultimately. Once
again look at the Caesars, they held godlike power."
"You're thinking of such as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Commodus...."
"I'm also thinking of such as Claudius, the scholar who was practically
forced to take the Imperial mantle. And Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher
who although bound up in learning himself allowed his family free rein
in their vices and finally turned the Empire over to his son Commodus,
one of the most vicious men of all time. But take Caligula and Nero if
you will. Both of them stepped into power comparatively clean and with
the best of prospects. Well approved, well loved. What happened to them
when given power without restraint?"
Ross grumbled, "I admit I missed the boat, but not for the reasons Pat
presents. In a sane society, our serum would be a valuable contribution.
But in a dog eat dog world, where it's each man for himself, then it
becomes a criminal tool."