"I'm not."
Hanson shook his head. "You'll be safe," he said. "At the present
moment you have too many inhibitions to rouse a stir in Cliff Maculay."
Ava snorted angrily. She was still forgetting Maculay; in fact she
forgot him four or five times each day. Each time she reminded herself
that it was a good thing that she did not 'go' for his type of man
since the two of them would never get along.
Defensively, Ava said, "I'm to go to Venus and comb the entire planet
for a man on a binge?"
Doctor Hanson chuckled. "For he who knows the answer, Cliff Maculay
would leave a trail a mile wide," he said. "But you'd never make the
grade, Ava."
"You're quite right," she said.
Hanson grunted unintelligibly. It sounded like agreement to Ava, but
was actually a grunt of disgust. The doctor was old enough to be beyond
the sparring age, and he was disgusted at the sidelong mental attitude
of a race that admitted that love, marriage, and a family were at
the bottom of all effort--and then invented croquet, television, and
chaperones to make it difficult.
* * * * *
Hanson looked at his nurse, and shook his head slowly. He was willing
to bet his hat that Ava remembered every line in Maculay's face. And
that her dislike of Maculay was as genuine as a seven dollar bill,
Hanson would also bet money on. He had not been untying mental knots
for fifty years without being able to listen to one statement and
hear the truth unspoken between the words. He watched her stand there
uncomfortably, and knew that she was uncomfortable because she knew
that he knew what she was trying to hide to herself. Deliberately
letting her squirm, Hanson began to fiddle with his watch chain.
He was thinking with the back part of his brain, now. He needed
Maculay; he had here before him a girl that could, if she were willing
to admit it, go forth and get Cliff. But not the way she was, with her
defensive armor all set up to fight against the Clifford Maculay that
had kissed her and then patted her on the head and left to go in search
of beer and beauty.
Hanson fiddled with his watch chain, then began to swing the Phi Beta
Kappa key around his forefinger, winding it up and then reversing it to
unwind and rewind in the opposite direction.
Ava stood there uncertainly, watching him whirl the chain. She could
not leave without some explanation regarding her reticence about going
to Venus for Maculay. Obviously Hanson was not finished with this
conversation, yet he sat there deep in thought. Ava anticipated that he
would come out of it with a more practical idea than sending her for
Maculay, since that would not work.
"Relax," said Hanson quietly, after some time. "I wouldn't send you
after Cliff Maculay; I wouldn't hurt you for the world, Ava."
"I know," she said. "I--"
"You've been dwelling on that subject too long," he told her.
She nodded.
"Probably losing sleep, too."
"I wouldn't say that."
"But you look as though you needed sleep."
"I don't really."
"Then why are you yawning?"
"Am I?"
"You yawn frequently. You should get more sleep. Why not rest? Sit down
and relax. Sleep is the great restorer; you should take a short nap.
Sleep, Ava. Go to sleep. I'll see that no one harms you. Sleep."
Her eyes fixed on the whirling watch charm, Ava slowly let herself down
into the doctor's consultation chair and leaned her head against the
back.
He passed a hand before her open eyes and she did not blink. With a
quiet chuckle, Hanson dropped the watch chain into his vest pocket and
sat back. "I'm going to help you."
"I know," she replied.
"You resent Maculay."
"I do."
"But it is true that your resentment of Maculay is because he is
attractive to you--but wants a more vivacious and interesting type of
woman."
"Yes."
"You also resent the fact that this desire of his is false, that any
alliance he may make will also be false while a true love awaits in
you, unwanted so long as he is under my post-hypnotic suggestion."
"Yes."
"Then since you and he are quite alike in so many ways when normal, if
you are reversed in personality as he is, you will then match his mood
and desire."
* * * * *
With Ava, Hanson had much less difficulty; he had known the woman
for ten years, known her moods, her likes and dislikes, and her
personality. He had, lightly, worked her over from time to time until
his control over her was quite complete. It took him about two hours
to turn Ava's personality inside out and to suggest that she remain
extroverted until Maculay was returned to earth. For travelling
expenses he filled her wallet and gave her hypnotic reason for
possessing that sum of money. Then he snapped her awake and watched her
leave the office with a cheerful stride.
"A hell of a note when the fate of the universe depends on libido and
post-hypnosis," he grunted.
* * * * *
Seven hours later the _Evening Star_ took off for Venus, and even
Doctor Hanson might have had trouble in recognizing his nurse. Gone
were the glasses, the mousy clothing, and the flat heels. From pedicure
to hair-do and from hide to handbag. Ava Longacre was as changed as her
personality.
And where Maculay had leaned against the bar, regaling a couple of
women with idle chatter, Ava sat and watched four dazzled males vie
against one another for the privilege of a dance, a smile, the purchase
of a corsage or a drink--or the spacecraft itself.
She enjoyed it, but she remained a bit aloof; she had a job on her
hands. She knew where she was going, and exactly how to find Cliff
Maculay.
3
Alone in his office at night, while the _Evening Star_ was starting the
hike to Venus, Doctor Hanson sat thinking. He was piecing it together;
and it was like playing with a jigsaw puzzle that had three-quarters
of the pieces missing. He never would get the completed picture; it
just took too many years of a man's life in study and application to
finish the job. All he could do was to fit the meager pieces in where
he thought they might fit, and then try to ignore the blank spaces that
he could not possibly reconstruct.
At midnight, Hanson took to the telephone and called California.