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"I'd better get started then." "Let me help you," Brainard said. "I have a little influence in this area and your cause interests me." He picked up the phone on his desk. Kennon sighed. He had found an ally. "What are you going to do with that girl?" Brainard asked. "Formalize our mating as soon as she is able to get out of bed," Kennon replied. "She is an ignorant, untrained savage!"
Kennon's voice was flat and filled with utter conviction. "There's a reason why Copper's wearing that suit," Kennon continued, "and you won't know that either." The Burkholtz swiveled around to point at Kennon's belly. "I've had about enough of this. Let's have it. Tell me what you're doing here!" "I'll do better than that," Kennon said promptly. "I'll show you.
We discovered quite a bit from the experimental station you left us when you disappeared ten years ago. But we stopped when we found the age that was being indoctrinated with Lani tabus. We could have gone farther, but I didn't think it was necessary." "Didn't Douglas tell you?" Kennon asked curiously. "I told him when I turned him loose."
He took another contract from one of the drawers of his desk. "Take a look at this. I think you'll be more satisfied." "If you don't mind, I'll read it now," Kennon said. Alexander nodded. "It's fair enough," Kennon said, "except for Article Twelve." "The personal privilege section? "Yes." "Well, that's the contract. You can take it or leave it." "I'll leave it," Kennon said.
Alexander's investigative staff was better than good. It was uncanny. "But seriously, Dr. Kennon, I am pleased that you do not like that contract. Frankly, I wouldn't consider employing you if you did." "Sir?" "That contract is a screen. It weeds out the careless, the fools, and the unfit in one operation. A man who would sign a thing like that has no place in my organization."
"It would be more sure and there are never too many old ones." Kennon shuddered, thinking of the euthanasia chambers on Otpen One. "There will be more from now on," he said. "Outworld can afford it. It'll bend us a little but we won't break and besides, the Lani will need our help for some time to come." Alexander looked at Kennon.
But out here on the periphery it was a deadly advantage. "So I gave it away," Alexander said. "I suppose I was careless, but your thoughts about the moons shocked me." "You practically told me once before, when you hired me," Kennon said, "but I never realized it." "You were too excited then." "I wouldn't know," Kennon said. "At any rate I didn't add the facts correctly."
"You females," Kennon said in quick exasperation. "You drive a man crazy. Get an idea in your head and it takes triatomate to blast it out. Now let's go." Two hours brought them back to the volcanic area, and knowing what to look for, Kennon located the pockmarked mountain valley. From the air it looked completely ordinary. Kennon was amazed at the perfection of the natural camouflage.
I don't want to build a united opposition. Usually I can get one or more of them to vote with me on critical deals, but I always have to pay for their support." Alexander's voice was bitter as he touched the dilate button on the iris door beside him. "You'll have to meet them tonight. There's five of them here now." "That isn't in the contract," Kennon said. He was appalled at Alexander.
And mankind had a history of dealing harshly with its mutants. So Beta would play it safe. Kennon wondered if there were other worlds in the Brotherhood that had come to the same conclusion. Possibly there were. And possibly there were worlds where marked deviations had occurred.
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