Instantly, as the click sounded, he was outside his body, looking down
at it. The pain was gone. The conflicting muscle pulls were gone. Or he
was no longer aware of them. He understood that the latter was the true
explanation.
"Stand up," he said, to his body.
His body obeyed this order. It rose from its hands and knees and stood
upon its feet.
This fact did not surprise Kurt Zen. He had known it would happen. This
was the way things were. The essence of him, the consciousness that was
above the body, was never surprised.
"Stop trembling," he said, silently, to his body.
Instantly the tremors vanished. The body knew its master.
Kurt Zen also knew that he now had a choice. He could go back into that
body. Or he could go--elsewhere. But he knew where he was needed most.
_Click!_
The way he went back into his body was like turning a switch. One
instant, he was inside, looking through his eyes, hearing through his
ears.
He moved quickly, snatching the gun from the lieutenant's grasp.
Another instant and he had the weapons of the soldiers. He flung these
into the corner. Then he grabbed Cal's gun from the floor where the
ragged man had dropped it.
At this point, he saw that Nedra was sitting up and was watching him.
The expression on her face was that of a sleepy small girl awakening in
the morning. Only this small girl did not quite succeed in looking as
if she had been asleep. Her eyes were too wide open and she looked much
too alert.
"Hello," Zen said. "So you decided to call off the sham." The thought
popped into his mind and the words out of his mouth before he could
stop them.
"Did you know?" she gasped.
"Of course I did," Zen stoutly insisted. "When you went to sleep, I
knew it was a trick designed to lure me by suggestion into the belief
that I was sleepy, too."
"Then why did you let me do it?"
"I wanted to see how far you would go," he answered. "Come on. Let's
get out of here."
"What about them? Are they shamming too?" She pointed to the bodies on
the floor.
"They're up there, watching," he said, gesturing toward the ceiling. He
laughed.
Owlishly, she stared at him. "I do believe you are out of your mind,
colonel."
"It helps," he said. "Come on. Let's make tracks."
"That's a splendid idea, colonel. Except for one thing."
"What's that?"
She pointed to the sleeping lieutenant. "He said he had left some men
with a machine gun."
"Damn! I had forgotten that. However, that is a problem that can be
solved."
"How?"
"This way." He moved to the heavy machine gun mounted at the window so
that its muzzle covered the street. He had his finger on the trigger
and was searching the street when he realized that she was pulling at
his arm and speaking to him. "What?" he said.
"No," she answered. Her voice was very firm.
"Are you out of your mind?" he demanded.
"We don't have to shoot them," she replied.
"Why not?"
"Because they are already taken care of."
"Eh? How do you know?"
"I know."
"Then you also know how these men here were put to sleep?" His voice
had the sound of steel on stone.