“There’s one thing,” Telzey said. “We can’t ever be sure here whether Ti or somebody else isn’t listening to what we say.”
Gaziel nodded. “We’ll have to take a chance on that.”
“Right,” Telzey said. “We wouldn’t get very far if we stuck to sign language or counting on thinking the same way about everything.”
They came to the estate wall ten minutes later. It was a wall designed to discourage, at first glance, any notions of climbing over it. Made of the same gleaming material as the central building, its smooth unbroken surface stretched up a good thirty-five feet above the ground. It curved away out of sight behind trees in either direction; but none of the trees they saw stood within a hundred feet of the wall. They turned left along it. Either there was a gate somewhere, or aircars were used to reach the forest.
They came to a gateway presently. Faint vehicle tracks in the grass led up to it from various directions. It was closed by a slab set into the wall, which appeared to be a sliding door. They could find no indication of a lock or other mechanism.
“Might be operated from the house.”
It might be. In any case, the gateway seemed to be in regular use. They sat down on the grass some distance away to wait. And they’d hardly settled themselves when the door slab drew silently back into the wall. A small enclosed ground vehicle came through; and the slab sealed the gateway again. The vehicle moved on a few yards, stopped. They hadn’t been able to see who was inside, but now a small door opened near the front end. Linden stepped out and started toward them, scowling. They got warily to their feet.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he came up.
“Looking around generally like Ti told us to,” said Gaziel.
“He didn’t tell you to sit here watching the gate, did he?”
“No,” Telzey said. “But he didn’t say not to.”
“Well, I’m telling you not to,” Linden said. “Move on! Don’t let me find you around here again.”
They moved on. When they glanced back presently, the vehicle had disappeared.
“That man really doesn’t like us,” Gaziel remarked thoughtfully.
“No, he doesn’t,” Telzey said. “Let’s climb a tree and have a look at the forest.”
They picked a suitable tree, went up it until they were above the level of the wall and could see beyond it. A paved road wound away from the area of the gate toward the mountain. That part of the island seemed to be almost covered with a dense stand of tropical trees; but, as on this side, no trees grew very close to the wall. They noticed no signs of animal life except for a few small fliers. Nor of what might be Ti’s experimental Martri life.
Telzey said, “The gate controls are probably inside the cars they use when they go out there.”
“Uh-huh—and the car Linden was in was armored.” Gaziel had turned to study the surrounding stretches of the estate from their vantage point. “Look over there!”
Telzey looked. “Gardening squad,” she said after a moment. “Maybe we can find out something from them.”
III
A flotilla of sixteen flat machines was gliding about purposefully a few inches above the lawns among the trees. An operator sat on each, manipulating controls. Two men on foot spoke now and then into communicators, evidently directing the work.
Gaziel nodded. “Watch that one!”
They’d approached with some caution, keeping behind trees for the most part, and hadn’t yet been observed. But now one of the machines was coming in directly from the side toward the tree behind which they stood. The operator should be able to see them, but he was paying them no attention.
They studied him in uneasy speculation. There was nothing wrong about his motions; it was his expression. The eyes shifted around, but everything else seemed limply dead. The jaw hung half open; the lips drooped; the cheeks sagged. The machine came up almost to the tree, turned at a right angle, started off on another course.
Telzey said softly, “The other operators seem to be in about the same condition—whatever it is. But the supervisors look all right. Let’s see if they’ll talk.”
They stepped out from behind the tree, started toward the closer of the two men on foot. He caught sight of them, whistled to draw his companion’s attention.
“Well,” he said, grinning amiably as they came up. “Dr. Ti’s new guests, aren’t you?” His gaze shifted between them. “And, uh, twin. Which is the human one?”
The other man, a big broad-shouldered fellow, joined them. Telzey shrugged. “We don’t know.” The men stared. “Can’t you tell?” the big one demanded.
“No,” said Gaziel. “We both feel we’re human.” She added, “From what Dr. Ti told us, you mightn’t be real people either and you wouldn’t know it.”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
“Not likely!” the big man said. “A wirehead doesn’t have a bank account.”
“You do? Outside?” Gaziel said.
“Uh-huh. A healthy one. My name’s Remiol, by the way. The little runt’s Eshan.”
“We’re Telzey and Gaziel,” said Telzey. “And maybe you could make those bank accounts a lot healthier.”
They looked at her, then shook their heads decidedly.
“We’re not helping you get away, if that’s what you mean,” Remiol said. Eshan added, “There’d be no way of doing it if he wanted to. You kids just forget about that and settle down! This isn’t a bad place if you keep out of trouble.”
“You wouldn’t have to help us get away exactly,” Telzey said. “How often do you go to the mainland?”
There was a sudden momentary vagueness in their expressions which made her skin prickle.
“Well,” Remiol said, frowning and speaking slowly as if he had some difficulty finding the words, “about as often as we feel like it, I’d say. I . . .” He hesitated, gave Eshan a puzzled look.
“You could take out a message,” Gaziel said, watching him.
“Forget it!” said Eshan, who seemed unaware of anything unusual in Remiol’s behavior. “We work for Dr. Ti. The pay’s great and the life’s easy. We aren’t going to spoil that setup!”
“All right,” Telzey said after a moment. “If you don’t want to help us, maybe you won’t mind telling us what the setup is.”
“Wouldn’t mind at all!” said Remiol, appearing to return abruptly to normal. He gave Telzey a friendly grin. “If Dr. Ti didn’t want us to talk to you, we’d have been told. He’s a good boss—you know where you are with him. Eshan, give the wireheads a food break and let’s sit down with the girls.”
They sat down in the grass together. Gaziel indicated the machine operators with a hand motion. “You call them wireheads. They aren’t humans but a sort of Martri work robot?”
“Not work robots,” Remiol said. “Dr. Ti doesn’t bother with those. These are regular puppets—maybe defectives, or some experiment, or just drama puppets who’ve played a few roles too many. When they get like this, they don’t last more’n a year—then back they go to the stuff they grow them from. Meanwhile they’re still plenty good for this kind of work.”
“Might be a few real humans among them,” Eshan said reflectively, looking over at the operators. “After a while, you don’t think about it much—they’re all programmed anyway.”
“How do real humans get to be in that kind of shape?” Gaziel said.
The men shrugged. “Some experiment again,” said Remiol. “A lot of important research going on in the big building here.”
Telzey said, “How did you know one of us was a wirehead?”
“One of the lab workers told us,” said Eshan. “She said Dr. Ti was mighty happy with the results. Some of his other twinning projects hadn’t turned out so well.”
Remiol winked at Telzey. “This one turned out perfect!”
She smiled. “You ever been on the other side of the wall?”
They had. Evidently, it was as unhealthy as Ti had indicated to go th
ere unless one was in one of the small fleet of armored and armed vehicles designed for the purpose. The only really safe place on the forest side was a small control fort on the slope of the mountain, and that came under occasional attack. Eshan and Remiol described some of the Martri creations they’d seen.
“Why does Dr. Ti keep them around?” Gaziel asked.
“Uses them sometimes in the Martridramas he puts on here,” said Remiol.
“And wait till you’ve seen one of those!” said Eshan. “That’s real excitement! You don’t see shows like that anywhere else.”
“Otherwise,” Remiol said, speaking of the forest puppets, “I guess it’s research again. I worried at first about one of them coming over the wall. But it’s never happened.”
“Well, well!” said Ti. “Having a friendly gossip?”
He’d come floating out of a grove of trees on a hoverdisk and stopped a few feet away, holding the guide rail in his large hands.
“Hope you don’t mind, Doctor,” Remiol said. He and Eshan had got to their feet as Ti approached.
Ti smiled. “Mind? Not in the least. I’m greatly pleased that the new members of our little community have begun to make acquaintances so quickly. However, now we’ll all be getting back to work, eh? Telzey and Gaziel, you can stand up here with me and we’ll return to the house together.”
They stepped up on the disk beside him, and it swung gently around and floated away, while the gardening machines lifted from the ground and began to reform into their interrupted work patterns.
“Fine fellows, those two!” said Ti, beaming down at Gaziel and Telzey. “They don’t believe in overexerting themselves, of course. But then that isn’t necessary here, and I prefer a relaxed and agreeable atmosphere around me.”
Telzey said, “I understand it’s sometimes rather exciting, too.”
Ti chuckled. “That provides the counterpoint—the mental and emotional stimulus of the Martridrama! I need both. I’m always at my best here on the island! A room has been prepared for you two. You’ll be shown there, and I’ll come shortly to introduce you to some of the more interesting sections of our establishment.”
The groundcar Linden had been operating stood near the side door Telzey and Gaziel had used when they left the building. The hoverdisk went gliding past it to the door which opened as they approached, and into the building. In the hall beyond, it settled to the floor. They stepped down from it.
“Why, Challis!” said Ti heartily, gazing past Telzey. “What a pleasant surprise to see you back!”
Telzey and Gaziel looked around. A pale slender woman with light-blue hair was coming across the hall toward them.
“This is my dear wife,” Ti told them. He was smiling, but it seemed to Telzey that his face had lost some of its ruddy color. “She’s been absent from the island for some time. I didn’t know she was returning . . .” He turned to Challis as she came up. “These are two very promising recruits, Challis. You’ll be interested in hearing about my plans for them.”
Challis looked over at them with an expression which was neither friendly nor unfriendly. It might have been speculative. She had pale-gray eyes and delicately beautiful features. She nodded slightly; and something stirred eerily in Telzey’s mind.
Ti said, “I’ll send someone to show you two to your room.” He took Challis by the arm. “Come, my dear! I must hear what you’ve been doing.”
He went off toward a door leading from the hall, Challis moving with supple ease beside him. As the door closed on the pair, Telzey glanced at Gaziel.
Gaziel said blandly, “You know, Ti’s wife reminds me of someone. But I simply can’t remember who it is.”
So she’d noticed it, too—the general similarity in appearance and motion between Challis and the auburn-haired puppet who’d come walking along the restaurant terrace in Orado City . . .
A brisk elderly woman appeared a few minutes later. She led them to a sizable room two building levels above the hall, showed them what it contained, including a wardrobe filled with clothing made to their measurements, and departed after telling them to get dressed and wait here for Dr. Ti.
They selected other clothes, put them on. They were the sort of thing Telzey might have bought for herself and evidently had been chosen with considerable care. They opened the door then and looked out. No one was in sight. They went quickly and quietly back downstairs to the entrance hall.
Linden’s armored car still stood where they had seen it. There was no one in sight here either. They went over to the car. It took only a moment to establish that its two doors were locked, and that the locks were of the mechanical type.
They returned hurriedly to their room.
IV
“Here,” said Ti, “you see my current pool of human research material.”
They were on an underground level of the central building, though the appearance of the area didn’t suggest it. It was a large garden, enclosed by five-story building fronts. Above was a milky skylight. Approximately a hundred people were in sight in the garden and on the building galleries. Most of them were young adults. There were few children, fewer of the middle-aged, no oldsters at all. They were well-dressed, well-groomed; their faces were placid. They sat, stood, moved unhurriedly about, singly and in groups. Some talked; some were silent. The voices were low, the gestures leisurely.
“They’re controlled by your Martri computer?” Telzey asked.
Ti nodded. “They’ve all been programmed, though to widely varying degrees. Since they’re not being used at the moment, what you see is a random phase of the standard nonsleeping activity of each of them. But notice the group of five at the fountain! They’ve cued one another again into the identical discussion they’ve had possibly a thousand times before. We can vary the activity, of course, or reprogram a subject completely. I may put a few of them through their paces for you a little later.”
“What’s the purpose of doing this to them?” said Gaziel.
Ti said, “These are converging lines of study. On the one hand, as you’re aware, I’m trying to see how close I can come to turning a Martri puppet into a fully functioning human being. On the other hand, I’m trying to complete the process of turning a human being into a Martri puppet, or into an entity that is indistinguishable from one. The same thing, of course, could be attempted at less highly evolved life levels. But using the human species is more interesting and has definite advantages—quite aside from the one that it’s around in abundance, so there’s no problem of picking up as much research material as I need, or of the type I happen to want.”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting caught?” Gaziel said.
Ti smiled. “No. I’m quite careful. Every day, an amazing number of people in the Hub disappear, for many reasons. My private depredations don’t affect the overall statistics.”
Telzey said, “And after you’ve done it—after you’ve proved you can turn people into puppets and puppets into people—what are you going to do?”
Ti patted her shoulder. “That, my dear, needn’t concern you at present. However, I do have some very interesting plans.”
Gaziel looked up at him. “Is this where the one of us who’s the original Telzey will go?”
“No,” Ti said. “By no means. To consign her to the research pool would be inexcusably wasteful. Telzey, if matters work out satisfactorily, will become my assistant.”
“In what way?”
“That woman puppet you were so curious about—you tried to investigate its mind, didn’t you?” Gaziel hesitated an instant.
“Yes.”
“What did you find?”
“Not too much. It got away from me too quickly. But it seemed to me that it had no sense of personal existence. It was there. But it was a nothing that did things.”
“Did you learn what it was doing?”
“No.”
Ti rubbed his jaw. “I’m not sure I believe that,” he remarked thoughtfully. “But it makes no difference now. I ha
ve a number of such puppet agents. Obviously, a puppet which is to be employed in that manner should never be developed from one of the types that are in public dramatic use. That it happened in this case was a serious error; and the error was Linden’s. I was very much annoyed with him. However, your ability to look into its mind is a demonstration of Telzey’s potential value. Linden, as far as I can judge the matter, is a fairly capable telepath. But puppet minds are an almost complete blur to him, and when it comes to investigating human minds in the minute detail I would often prefer, he hasn’t been too satisfactory. Aside from that, of course, he has many other time-absorbing duties.
“We already know that Telzey is a more capable telepath than Linden in at least two respects. When her psi functions have been restored, she should become extremely useful.” Ti waved his hand about. “Consider these people! The degree of individual awareness they retain varies, depending on the extent and depth of the programming they’ve undergone. In some, it’s not difficult to discern. In others, it’s become almost impossible by present methods. That would be one of Telzey’s tasks. She should find the work interesting enough.”
“She’ll be a wirehead?” Telzey said.
“Oh, yes, you’ll both be programmed,” Ti told her. “I could hardly count on your full collaboration otherwise, could I? But it’ll be delicate work. Our previous experiments have indicated that programming psi minds presents special difficulties in any case, and I want to be quite sure that nothing goes wrong here. Your self-awareness shouldn’t be affected for one thing.” He smiled. “I believe I’ve come close to solving those problems. We’ll see presently.”
Telzey said, “What do you have in mind for the one who isn’t Telzey?”
“Ah! Gaziel!” Ti’s eyes sparkled. “I’m fascinated by the possibilities there! The question is whether our duplication processes have brought on the duplication of the original psi potential. There was no way of testing indirectly for that, but we should soon know. If they have, Gaziel will have become the first Martri psi. In any case, my dears, you can rest assured, whichever you may be, that each of you is as valued by me as the other and will be as carefully handled. I realize that you aren’t reconciled to the situation, but that will come in time.”
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