reasons.â
What was that? Did the counter-counters know?
âIt will be no end of trouble and perhaps a number of months, years almost, before quite such a fit can be found. Oh, yes, as you know, we can get brains as we like and make them take shape, but bodies are, we now know, harder. It wasnât to be unexpected that youâd start under the shock. Your mind-body chart showed that. Your soft spot is physical vanityâthe ordinary toughâs quick under his talon. So we were preparedânot surprised, not offendedâquite natural, quite natural; and quite remediable. It would be serious only if that werenât so. And we just canât afford to lose you, so it wonât happen.â
The voice was very low and quiet but into its neutrality there had been fed the slightest note of reassurance.
âYou slipped out and of course we slipped after you. We knew you would make that reaction, so we fetched you.â
So he was back with the moles after all! That meant that in spite of all this rather puzzling preliminary he would be in the discard some time in the next few hours. Well, he must face it. They wouldnât torture. Perhaps theyâd let him stop his heart himself.
There was a pause, and then the voice said, âYou donât yet quite seem to understand; we mustnât have a second. You still really donât want to go to the discard, and we want it even less. You canât go back to the surface. We can always pull you down from there with more ease than a shark pulls down a poor swimmer. We have now a sure plan. You are the pin in it. Many boys would cut half their fingers off for it. And it really means that at last weâll hit the bullâs eye.â
He waited, but evidently the speaker had ended with a question. They had perhaps half a dozen exchanges.
At the end he said, âIâll think it over.â Then he thought of some more objections and began to put them. But nothing answered.
He got up and groped round the room. It was undoubtedly empty. He went back and lay on the bed. It was clear that he was back, right in the middle of the net and they werenât going to kill, yet; indeed, would go to almost any lengths not to kill: but would, if they couldnât get their way. He must gain time.
He spoke to the silence, âWhat if I consent?â
There was no answer for a time, and then very faintly he heard, âVery well, very well.â
âBut why do you want my consent?â was answered more quickly.
âWe must have co-operation. You know that as well as we. Why, even in these first steps, you can ruin all. Certain grafts wonât take unless youâll help. Still more, certain modulations, the person himself alone can make. They just canât be made, unless the man at the center of the machine co-operates. We can hand you in the tools, but you alone can, inside, make the adjustments. They are far too delicate for any outsider to make. Who could make a singer sing by manipulating his chords for him? But men are taught how to use their own chords. And then, later on, more and more, it is you who will guide the bomber. You must be on your own.
âOf course, weâll kill you if you fail us. But if you donât, you have us behind you; yes, ready to do as you, at the top-point, tell us you want done. You see, thatâs the choice: fail us and we will kill. We must, though we certainly donât want toâitâs an immense loss, more than you can judge. Come in, with us and you can have all you ask and get the prize singlehanded. You canât get out of it now, except by death. Thereâs no choice for you but this big thing, for which any of your colleagues would have given their lives, or your life.â
He still hit back, âWhy not choose one of them?â
âDonât be forgetful. If you forget what you have been told, of course weâll have to kill you at once. Forgettingâhow