"Darn right. This guy's a fugitive, like I said."
"I knew they'd get in trouble, letting these foreigners come down."
"Look, honey. One thing, we need the trade. A Ravian pays four picks of
plainum for a day or two in a human. It's all here in the news-sheet.
A Ravian hasn't got emotions, and when they're in a host they can feel
everything the host feels. Real Kicks. The host gets to spend one pick
himself--a small fortune--he has a shivaree and the Ravian goes for the
ride. And for the host it's all voluntary."
"What about this Minnn?"
Sally listened with bright attention, slightly flushed.
"It says here he could be anywhere, any man, woman or child. Tells how
you can spot 'em and names a reward. Person with old Minnn inside is a
little flushed, feverish, doesn't sleep very well. They...."
"Say, honey, Sally didn't sleep well last night. Do you think she's all
right?"
"Any kid has a restless night sometimes, Mary. Lemme finish. The person
is apt to be kind of listless, and might have memory blanks. Oh--and
the Ravian enters a host by some kind of physical contact, and he can
get to another host only by a contact with the first one."
"Maybe we ought to take Sally to Dr. Price, hon. She just hasn't been
herself lately."
"Oh well," sighed Odum, and threw down the clicker-story. "Tell you
what. All you do is visor security, tell them you're pretty sure a
person has this Ravian, and the person gets a real good physical--free.
Let's just tell them Sal has the symptoms and get a deal."
Sally got up listlessly and the screen banged as she wandered out.
"What symptoms?" asked Mary.
"You mean you weren't listening?" And Mr. Odum told Mrs. Odum all the
signs the article had listed, while Mrs. Odum gradually paled.
"But--those are exactly the symptoms she does have," she said when he
finished. Their eyes met and he reached for the visor.
The security cops arrived. Chester was with them. As they boiled
from their 'copter they nearly knocked over an old gentleman who was
creaking his way delicately along the sidewalk, and one cop stepped on
a small dog, which bit him.
Two of them stayed with Sally, who stood in the yard with a scared
expression; two others entered the house with Chester. They all came
out of the house and Mary explained to Sally that she was not to be
frightened. Sally was given a nice raincoat with built-in mittens--it
was triple-ply mento-insulation plastic--and everybody bundled into the
'copter.
Sally liked the ride and the raincoat, but when it was all over she was
sad. Mr. Forge seemed disappointed somehow....
* * * * *
Minnn lay quiet in his new host soaking in data. Perfesser Frye ...
old ... quiet, jogging complex of contentment, and dissatisfaction.
Cheated on price of eggs ... nice house over there, awful the way
they've changed things ... little girl, patted her on the head, might
have had a child like that. Enjoy what you can. Glow-thought connected
with something called beer.
Minnn was shocked to find that, almost the opposite of Sally,
Perfesser Frye was a complete liar. He was not a professor, and the
knowledge he impressed people with was mostly a collection of long,
mispronounced words and memorized facts of which the Perfesser did
not know the meaning. His landlady believed he was coming into an
immense inheritance based on platinum on Vega, and she allowed him
a familiarity which Minnn found amusing and which included rent
exemption. The man was a collection of lies. Even his rheumatism was
not genuine, but psychosomatic.
That evening the Perfesser had the unpleasant experience of seeing
his own face on the landlady's show-visor set, with the information
that there was a price on his head. This was the last he remembered
for some time, although to the landlady he appeared to retain full
consciousness. He leaped to his feet most unrheumatically, tied her
up, bashed in the visor, and pattered out into the streets, which were
deserted.
The Perfesser had good eyes for distance use, Minnn found. He swung
the Perfesser's hook-beaked head about searchingly. At the end of the
street men were coming, in mento-insulation. Minnn swung the lanky
frame about, almost capsizing it, and sprinted long-leggedly in the
opposite direction.
In a few blocks the heart was pounding and the face was hot and the
lungs could not suck enough oxygen. The Perfesser was not feeling
anything consciously, but his parasympathetic nervous system was giving
Minnn the horrors.
The cops could not be seen. Minnn withdrew to rest. The Perfesser came
to an abrupt halt, and gazed about him glassily. He remembered the
nightmarish moment watching the visor; now he found himself in the
street panting like a horse and raining sweat. He stood getting his
breath and trying to think, then moved off purposefully....
* * * * *
Chester's eyes felt like they would drop out on his desk at any moment.
He had had no sleep. He was entertaining a plan to visit the Ravians,
in disguise, as a tourist, and make things miserable for _them_, when
two buzzers rang at once.
He answered his chief's buzzer first. Had Minnn been caught? No? Well,
the governor had called and the heat was on. The chief was forced to
give Forge a choice of producing Minnn in 24 hours or being sent as
supercargo to the Mars-deserts. That was all.