Breast Cancer Slippers

card trick by john berryman the game was stud. there were seven at thetable, which makes for good poker. outside of nick, who banked the game, nobody lookedfamiliar. they all had the beat look of compulsive gamblers, fogged over by their individualattempts at a poker face. they were a cagey-looking lot. only one of them was within ten yearsof my age. "just in case, gamblers," the young one said.i looked up from stacking the chips i had just bought from nick. the speaker was a skinnylittle guy with a sharp chin and more freckles than i'd like to have. "if any one of you guys has any psi powers,"the sharp-chinned gambler said sourly, "you

better beat it. all gamblers here will recoupdouble their losses from any snake we catch using psi powers to beat the odds." he shot a hard eyed look around a room notyet dimmed by cigar smoke. i got the most baleful glare, i thought. he didn't need toworry. i'd been certified normal by an expert that very evening. the expert was dr. shari king, whom i hadtaken to dinner before joining the game at nick's. it had gotten to be a sort of weeklydate—although this night had given signs of being the last one. for a while that spring,desoxyribonucleic acid had begun to take second place in my heart. this is a pitiful admissionfor a biochemist to make—dna should be the

cornerstone of his life. but shari was somethingrare—a gorgeous woman, if somewhat distant, who was thoroughly intelligent. she had alreadyearned her doctorate, while i was still struggling with the tag ends of my thesis. "poker, tex?" shari had asked, when the waitresswas bringing dessert. "is this becoming a problem? you've played every night this week." "no problem, shari," i said. "i'm winning,and i see no point in not pocketing all that found money." "compulsive gambling is a sickness," she said,looking at me thoughtfully. she was wearing a shirtwaist and skirt that had the brightcolors and fullness you associate with peasant

dress. "the only sick thing about me is my bank account,"i grinned, relishing her dark, romantic quality. "i need the dough, shari. i've got a thesisto finish if i ever want to get a job teaching." her thick eyebrows fluttered upward, a dangersignal i had learned to look for. "that's a childish rationalization, tex," she saidwith a lot more sharpness than i had expected. "there are certainly other ways to get money!" "so i'm not as smart as you," i told her. "smart?" she didn't think i was tracking. "i wasn't as shrewd as you were in pickingmy parents," i said. "mine never had much,

and left me less than that when they died." she threw her spoon to the table. "i'll remindyou of how silly these remarks sound, after you've hit a losing streak," she told me. i laughed at that one. "i don't lose, shari,"i said. "and i don't intend to." her lashes veiled her violet eyes as she smiledand said more quietly, "then you are in even worse trouble than i thought. i hear a lotabout what happens to these strange people who never lose at cards or at dice or at roulette.aren't you afraid of winding up in the gutter with your throat slit? isn't that what happensto people with psi powers who gamble?" she insisted. "what's your trick, tex? do youstack the deck with telekinesis, or does precognition

tell you what's about to be dealt?" "that crack isn't considered very funny intexas," i growled. "is it any more silly for me to think youmight be a psi personality than for you to think you never lose at cards?" she nailedme. i could feel my face getting red. "damn it!"i started. "nobody talks to a friend like that!" "pretty convincing proof!" shari said tartly. "of what?" "of the fact that you aren't making any senseabout this gambling kick you're on, tex. you

should have laughed my teasing off. who wouldseriously suggest that you were a psi personality?" she demanded. "and most of all, with my backgroundin psi, do you think i could be misled about it?" i shrugged, trying to cool down. shari's doctoratehad been earned with a startling thesis on psi phenomena and psi personalities, and shehad stayed on at columbia as a research fellow in the field. in egghead circles, she ratedas a psi expert, all right. "guess not," i said, trying to kill the subject. she wasn't going to let it die. "i don't thinkyou're a psi, tex. you're a normal!" the way she said it, it didn't sound like a compliment."worse than that," she insisted. "you're beginning

to act like a compulsive gambler." she tooka deep breath, and let me have the clincher: "i could never marry a gambler, tex!" "you've never been asked," i reminded her. she had the last word. "let's go!" she snapped. angry as i was about her acting as thoughi were a snake, i wished i could have thrown her certification that i was a normal in thefreckled face of the sharp-chinned gambler at nick's later that night. after shari'sneedling, i didn't take very kindly to his popping off with the law of the pack. it'sunderstood wherever people gamble that psis aren't welcome.

nick didn't like it any better than i did."all right, lefty," he said to the sharp-chinned gambler. "calm down, huh, kid? what kindagame you think i run, huh?" i didn't let the sour start spoil my game.i was lucky right from the start and hit big in several hands. lefty, the gambler who had yelped about psipowers at the game, dealt the tenth hand. he gave me the eight of spades in the hole.by the fourth card i had three other spades showing, which gave me four-fifths of a rareflush in stud poker. but by the fourth card lefty had given himself a pair of jacks. thatdrove all the other gamblers to cover. lefty raised, of course, and it cost me fivehundred bucks to see my fifth card. it was

a classic kind of stand-off in stud, and thewaiter stopped with his tray of drinks to press in among the other kibitzers and watchthe pay-off. lefty shucked out the last two cards carelessly,as if they didn't really matter. his own fifth card made no difference—his jacks alreadyhad a busted flush beaten. his smile was just a little too sharp as he tossed me my lastcard face up and reached for the pot with the same left-handed gesture. i took the poker panetella out of my teeth."all blue," i said, turning up my hole card with the other hand. lefty threw the unused part of the deck tothe center of the table. "that does it, you

snake!" he swore at me. it took a second for his accusation to sinkin. i started across the table after him. if they hadn't stopped me, i would have tornhis lying throat out. funny, but there were kibitzers on my shoulders before i could risean inch out of my chair. "down in texas you could get shot for a cracklike that, lefty!" i said. i guess i really yelled it. "and in new york you can, and probably will,get your rotten throat slit for a trick like the one you just pulled," he replied. he turnedto the other gamblers, most of whom had their hands on the edge of the table, ready to jumpto their feet if it got any rougher.

"i stacked the deck this last deal," he saidcoolly. he held a palm up at their surprised mutter. "tex's fifth card was stacked to bea heart, gamblers. you saw him get a spade and take the pot. i won't sit at the sametable with a guy that can do that. telekinesis has no place in poker." "pretty near as bad as stacked decks," oneof the gamblers rasped. but the others weren't with him. i only had to take one look at nick'sface. i stood up slowly, and the hands on my shouldersdidn't hold me down any longer. "lefty says he stacked the deck," i told them. "i sayhe lies. you know there's nothing to choose between our statements. lefty is a cheap grandstander,and i'll settle with him myself. nick, i won't

embarrass you tonight. this isn't your fault.but i'll be here tomorrow night, and you had better be glad to see me!" "sure, tex," he said uncomfortably, risingwith me. "take my seat, shorty," he directed one of the kibitzers. he walked around tograb me by the elbow and steer me as far away from lefty's truculent face as he could. atleast the sharp-chinned little rat had quit the game, too. both of us had left our chipson the table. nick wanted me to leave. "pay me off," i insisted.he said yes a lot quicker than i thought he would. the other gamblers could have squawkedthat my chips should go into the next pot, but apparently none of them did.

lefty sidled out as nick was paying me off."wait outside for me," i said to him. "why not?" he said, sticking his chin outat me and walking out. nick grabbed me again. "don't get hot, tex,"he warned me. "i don't want a killing on my own sidewalk. take it some place else, huh,kid?" "sure," i said. there wasn't any danger lefty would hang around.i was big enough to break him in two, which is exactly what i planned if i caught up withhim. it had been dark for some hours by the timei hit the street and waved for a skim-copter. nick's games start late.

"you asked me to wait," somebody said. i spunaround and saw lefty standing in the alleyway beside the building. i went for him, charginghard. he scuttled back into the alley, out of what little light there was that far downtown.just as i reached for him, somebody slugged me in the gut. i went down on a knee, gasping.i hadn't seen his sidekick—the alley was pretty dark. i heard lefty's breath suck insharply as i came up out of my crouch, diving for him. after all, it was only pain, somethinginside my head. it wasn't as though i had been really crippled. my fingers clawed athis jacket, and would have held him. but the other guy grabbed at my ankle and threw medown on the slippery cobbles again. i came up slower that time. i'd bunged upmy kneecap more than i wanted to think about.

lefty was still out of reach. i called hima name that was always good for a fight in texas, and started after him, but slower thanbefore. i wasn't fast enough to avoid the hard thing that rammed against my spine. evendown in texas, a gun in the back freezes you up. lefty was all guts now that i was hung upon the gun barrel. it might as well have been a meat hook. "i warned you not to use psi in the game!"he snapped. "now you'll have to talk to pete." "one of us isn't going to live through this,"i promised him, starting to reach for his throat. the gun jabbed a reminder to watchmy manners.

"do you come quietly?" lefty asked shrilly."or do we—?" the sudden shrillness of his voice scaredme more than anything else. he was worked up worse than i was. "quietly," i conceded,trying to get some saliva to flow again. the pressure against my spine eased off. lefty stepped out of the alley to the curband flagged down a cruising 'copter. he made me get in first, which gave me a chance toturn, when i sat down, and see who had been holding the gun on me from behind. the gunmanhad sure drifted in one awful hurry. there wasn't a soul except lefty around. he hopped in after me. the turbine howledas the driver gunned us up on the air cushion

and sent us skimming away. the trip lastedonly four or five minutes through the thinning traffic of late evening. we pulled up in frontof a brownstone house in the upper eighties that reared up four stories among a stringof three-story neighbors. i limped to the top of the steps after lefty.he let us in with a key. we were in a dimly-lit hall that had a staircase against its leftwall and an open door at its right, leading into a darkened room. a tall skinny girl was sitting about a thirdof the way up the carpeted flight of steps. her face was drawn out to a point by a long,thin nose. "here they are," she called up the stairway, showing braces on her teeth.she stood up and came down the hall. she was

clad in a shortie wrapper that showed offher race-horse legs. "billy joe," she said to lefty. "i told themyou were coming." "hi, pheola," he said. "good for you." hesounded pleased. there were steps above, and two others joinedus. first came a short square man with gray hair and bushy gray eyebrows. he was wrappedup in a flannel robe that had once been maroon and was now rusty with age and wear. it onlyserved to confirm that he had just been yanked out of bed. he hadn't bothered to put anythingon his bare feet or to comb his hair. a pretty wild looking old man. behind him stumped a chunky woman, crowdingfifty. she was in a worse state of dishabille.

she hadn't quite made it to bed and was stillin her slip. her stockings had been unhitched from her garters and hung in slack transparencyaround her fat calves, like the sloughed-off skin of a snake. "i told you," pheola said to the gray-hairedman. "it's nice that you're right once in a while,"he said in a scratchy, sleepy voice, walking past her to switch on the ceiling of the roomon the right side of the hall. she didn't like that. lefty stopped her reply."will it be pc?" he asked her. "no," she said. "you missed that one," lefty said.

"didn't neither!" "well, sit in with us and see," he suggested. "what for?" she asked. "i know what's goingto happen in there. you'll be along to bed right soon, darlin' billy!" he looked over at me. "go on in, tex," hesaid. "darlin' billy!" i sneered. "don't pay any attention to her," he said."she's in another space-time continuum." i pointedly ogled the girl's pretty legs goingup the stairs and whistled softly. "my wife," he said, blushing. "a powerful pc, or oneday will be."

"you're kidding," i said. his arm on my elbowpushed me into the lighted room. it had been the front parlor of the old brownstonein its prime, and was now fixed up as an office. the place held an executive desk with severalbuttons and enough other controls to put it in orbit. there were a number of cushionedstraight-backed chairs and a comfortable leather couch under the window. only the fact thatit was getting on toward midnight made me willing to believe that the couple who hadwalked down the stairs expected to be taken seriously. "this is george robertson, the poker whiz,"lefty said briefly to the two sleepy heads. "they call him tex. tex, this is peter maragon,grand master of the lodge."

the gray-haired man gave me a tired nod. "iimagine you're a pretty angry young man, mr. robertson," he said in his scratchy voice.i started to tell him quite a little about how i felt, but he held up his hand. "i'vehad a hard day," he complained. "and i got out of bed solely to adjudicate your case.now, this will go a lot more quickly if you listen." he smacked his lips a couple timesas if he wondered where he had left his partial plate. i hoped he had swallowed it. "sit down,sit down," he said irritably, pointing at the chair across the desk from him. i debated it, but took the chair, grindingmy teeth. "you aren't stupid, or you wouldn't be a scientist,"he said, revealing that he knew a lot more

about me than i did about him. "let's startout with a couple facts." he pointed a gnarled finger at lefty. "wallybupp stacked a deck of cards on you tonight," he said gruffly. "what you don't know is thathe stacked them with telekinesis. he's a tk." "a snake!" i gasped. "watch your lip!" maragon croaked. "everybodyin this room is a psi. 'snake' is a dirty word around here, mr. robertson. mr. bupphas a special aversion to it." "what's the purpose...?" i began hotly. "hah!" maragon barked. "a good word!" he cackleda laugh at me. "purpose. exactly, mr. robertson. well, the lodge has a purpose, and you'llact a lot more sensibly if you know it."

"you," he said to me. "are a tk." "you," i yelled right back. "are a liar!" he ignored me completely. "we can't affordto have you gambling and cheating normals," he went on. "one of the lodge's fundamentalrules is that no psi may use his powers to the detriment of normals. lefty's big sceneat nick's fixed it so you won't be welcome in a big-time poker game anywhere in town.we did that deliberately. and we're telling you to quit gambling, as of this minute." "you say you are a tk," i interrupted. "somewhat," he said. "i have psi powers, buti'm not mainly a tk."

"whatever your powers are," i said. "theydon't make you supermen immune from the laws of libel. if you or anybody i can catch breathesone false word about my being a snake, you'll be on the receiving end of the roughest lawsuityou ever heard of!" "the silliness of that statement will occurto you in a while," he said dryly. "and truth is a defense against a claim of libel. butto get back to purpose. our second purpose tonight is to get it through your thick head,mr. robertson, that the lodge insists on its right to control your actions insofar as theyinvolve the use of your psi powers. we mean business, mr. robertson, and before you arethrough with our heartless mr. bupp tonight, you'll know it. that's all that's behind ourlittle charade."

he came to a stop and took a deep breath. "i'm going to make one statement and reston it," i said, trying to keep my voice calm and level. he shrugged. "your turn," he said. "i'm a normal," i said. "i flatly deny thati have the slightest shred of psi power. i accuse that freckled snake over there of lyingdeliberately. i'll make him pay for it, and he'll be lucky if it isn't with his blood." "that's all?" "isn't it enough?"

he laughed harshly and grinned over at lefty."some of you maverick psis scream like a gelded porker," he said. "i figgered you'd tell mewe'd cost you a fortune in prospective poker winnings, to say the least." my stomach dropped. i hadn't thought of that,not as much as i should have. it was my only income! "something a darn sight more importantthan money is involved," i said. "maybe you aren't such a bad guy," he decided.he looked over at the woman standing silently in her slip beside his desk, her bare armsfolded over her ample bosom. "how about it, milly?" he asked her. she shrugged. "he believes what he says,"she told him. "he honestly doesn't think he

has any psi powers." "that mitigates the affair," maragon said."still, our purpose demands an object lesson. i have to fine you, mr. robertson. you'vebroken one of our rules by using tk to stack a poker deck. because you weren't aware ofit, though, half of your fine will be remitted if you join the lodge within a week. accordinglyi assess you ... uh, how much, milly?" he asked. "he's got eight thousand and some in his breastpocket," she said with fiendish accuracy. "every penny he has in the world." "assess you eight thousand dollars," maragonconcluded. he got wearily to his feet, and

started to pad past me toward the door. "mr.bupp will collect," he said. the woman followed him, her hose hanging down around her ankles,and climbed the stairs stolidly behind him. lefty, whom maragon had called wally bupp,walked around behind the desk and took the swivel chair that the older man had just vacated."i'll take the eight thousand now, tex," he said, poking his chin at me belligerently. "you'll take four," i said, getting my feetunder me. he frowned. "four?" he repeated. "four knuckles," i gritted and started forhim. the gun barrel rammed me in the kidney, harder than it had in the alley. they'd smuggledin some protection. i really slammed on the

brakes, halfway across the desk. lefty hadn'tbothered to flinch, but sat there with his legs crossed, looking idly at his fingernails. "look behind you," he said. i did. the gun eased off my kidney as i turned.there wasn't anybody there. "tk," lefty said. "i also used it to tripyou up when you went for me in the alley, after i'd tk'd a left right in your gut. you'rea hard guy to stop, tex. but don't overdo it." "mere pain never stopped a guy who reallymeant it!" i went for him again. then it hit me. a deep and sickening painthrobbed from my breastbone down my left arm.

the lights started to dim, and i sagged downon the desk. "how'd that feel?" lefty asked, apparentlynot expecting an answer. "i clamped your coronary artery shut for a few seconds. a post-mortemwould never be able to tell it from the real thing if i held down tight." his grin had a viciousness in it i hadn'tseen before. he held out his hand. i struggled erect and handed my wallet to him. he onlytook out the big bills, and tossed it back across the desk to me. "thanks," he said."you'll get half of this back if you decide to join the lodge within a week." "what's all this about a lodge?" i tried weakly."what lodge?"

"why, this lodge," lefty said, waving a handaround loosely. "it's an organization of folks with psi powers. guys like you and me, tex." "i'm no tk!" i growled. "i didn't manipulatethose cards in any way." "funny you say that," he said, looking interestedand leaning his elbows on the desk. "you're right. i hadn't actually bothered to stackthe deck, tex. just kept a light tk touch on it to see if you were moving cards. youweren't, but you were hitting them right all the time. i haven't had time to tell maragonthe boys on the crap patrol were wrong. it wasn't telekinesis, tex. it was precognition.you're a pc, tex." he stood up and pointed toward the door. i was shaking so badly fromthe heart attack the snake had induced that

i got up helplessly and allowed him to steerme out by the elbow. "remember," he said at the head of the stepsthat led down to the street. "you've got a week to make up your mind about joining thelodge. in the meantime, don't gamble." "great," i said bitterly. "you sapped me downand rolled me for my poke, or the next thing to it. and now you tell me not to get in agame and try to get whole again. why should you care?" "you don't listen," he said sourly. "look,psis are supermen, in spite of your sneers. and whether you like it or not, tex, you'vegot some psi powers. normals resent, fear and hate us. we can't afford to have you makea killing at a poker table and then get exposed

as a 'snake.' we psis are a tiny minority.we all get blamed for things any one of us does." "i'm a normal," i said, a little hollowly. "you're more fortunate than that," he assuredme. "just so you understand the origin and purpose of the lodge. we find strength inunion, strength to resist the pressure of the majority. and membership in the lodgegives us control—control over psis like you who might bring the wrath of the normalmajority down on us by their shortsightedness." i shook my head. "you don't have to dressit up like this," i protested. "this is blackmail or extortion, i'm not sure which. i'm notjoining anything you bunch of creeps are a

part of." "you won't find that practical," he said,turning to go back inside. "and remember: stay away from cards." you're supposed to have nightmares at night.i had mine the whole next day. no, i wasn't a tk, lefty had said. i was a pc. you don'thave anemia, tex. it's leukemia! i made a farce of trying to get some workdone in the lab. after letting the third test tube slip through my fingers and shatter onthe lab bench, i gave it up. how would you have acted if you had gotten that kind ofnews? that first gut-twisting admission that you really may be a snake! then sharp awarenessof what it means. a guillotine couldn't cut

you off more sharply from normal humanity.but the spirit struggles and refuses to accept it. you can't be a snake! "take action!" i said aloud, getting a worriedlook from my lab assistant, busy mopping up my last shattered culture. "don't spin aroundlike this. do something!" i did the only thing i could think of, anddialed shari at her laboratory. she refused to accept the call at first. finally she toreherself away from a "delicate experiment" long enough to look at me angrily in the screen. "we don't have anything to say to each other,"she said coldly. "there are delicate experiments—" "can you test me for psi powers?" i interrupted.

"whatever for?" "to settle whether i have any," i snapped."it's important to me." "not necessary," she said. "do you think i'dbe successful in the psi field if i weren't sensitive to this sort of thing? don't worry,tex. you're a normal." "thanks," i said. "so you've told me. nowprove it to my satisfaction." "we shut up shop at five o'clock," she said."i'll be here for about an hour after that. my dinner date isn't until seven." "bet he doesn't gamble," i said, trying towin a little sympathy. "you bet he doesn't" she sniffed.

shari's laboratory was nothing more than alarge windowless office that could be cut into two sound-proof parts with a movablepartition. she had a whopper desk with full controls and other evidences of academic pelf.on a table against the short wall was her apparatus—if that's what you call decksof cards, a roulette wheel, a set of rhine esp cards, several dice and, so help me, acrystal ball. shari stood up behind her desk when i camein. it was something of a shock to find that her colorful peasant getup was antisepticallysheathed in a white laboratory coat. she was sure dressed for dirtier work than she wouldever have to do in that lab. her first look at me was one of surprise,but it softened to one of concern, which might

have been cheering on some other occasion."what has happened, tex?" she asked. "nothing," i said, keeping calm. "not a thing." "outside of seeing a ghost, eh?" she said."stop grinding your teeth like that. you'll give me the creeps. sit down. sit down! doyou hear me? relax!" i guess i found the chair across from herat the desk. "do i have psi powers?" i asked her. "either tk or pc? test me, shari." "what happened?" she insisted. i shook my head. "i'd rather not talk aboutit—not until i know the result of your test," i said.

shari thought about it for a while, tappingher desk with an irritated finger, and finally got a set of cards from the lab table againstthe wall. she shuffled them slowly on her desk blotter. "cards are your strong point,"she observed. "if you have any psi powers, they're most likely to show up with cards.i take it you will do your utmost to be right?" "who would double-cross himself?" i said tightly. "most people," shari said. "when it comesto psi. but we'll assume, for a starter, that you are on the level." she stacked the cardsin her hand. "we'll keep it simple," shari suggested. "i'll deal the cards one at a time.all you have to do is tell me whether the next card will be red or black. fair?"

"sure," i said. "deal!" she was a lousy dealer. or maybe it was becauseit was a one-handed operation. she was scoring my hits and misses with the little counterin her other hand. she ran the deck ten times for me. i got thirty-eightright on my best attempt and thirty-seven wrong on my worst. in total, of five hundredand twenty chances, i was right on two hundred and seventy-three, or fifty-two point twoper cent of the time, according to shari's slide rule. "oh, no," i said dismally. "i do have a littleedge on the cards!" "as a statistician, you'll make a great biochemist,"shari said, putting the deck away. "that would

only be true if i hadn't let you see yourhits and misses as each deal proceeded. you made succeeding guesses in the knowledge ofwhat had already been dealt. actually, your score was below average for trained observerswithout psi powers." she heaved a sigh, which somehow seemed to be of relief. "and now,you crazy cowpoke," she said, "tell me what this is all about." "i'm not a psi?" i demanded. "not if you were really trying," she said."were you?" "you think i want to be a psi?" i demanded.i told her all that had happened the night before from the time lefty had accused meof being a snake until he had let me out of

the brownstone house and warned me againstgambling. guess how shari reacted. a big nothing! "well?" i asked, as she sat silent with herelbows on the edge of her desk and her chin propped up on her knuckles. "you're really quite naive, aren't you, tex?"she asked me. "let me give you an objective statement of what happened to you last night." she counted these things off on her fingers:"you won some money at poker. a gambler said you used tk to win. he took your winnings,and then some, away from you as the price of silence. he warned you not to gamble anymore. he claimed he was part of an organization

of psi personalities. is that a fair statement?" "except for one thing," i said. "he used hispsi powers on me in a pretty dramatic fashion." "try occam's razor," she suggested. she was getting insulting. "all right," igrowled, feeling my face get red. "prefer the simpler explanation, if you can find one.i was prodded in the back, both in the alley and in the office at the brownstone house.something hit me in the gut and tripped me up. i had a heart seizure. what's simplerthan tk in accounting for the fact this was done without a soul around?" "i suppose i shouldn't be critical of you,"she said. "it's not your field and you haven't

been exposed to the lengths to which charlatansgo, just to prove they are supermen. the simpler explanation is that there was someone elsein the alley, carefully dressed in dull black to stay invisible in the darkness. the secondprodding of a gun in your spine was pure suggestion—you'd been so well-sold by that time you were readyto believe anything." "and my heart attack?" "i can think of ten poisons that would giveyou the symptoms," shari said. "and don't tell me you let nothing pass your lips!" sheburst out hotly as i started to speak. "i suppose you've never had a spray hypodermic?you'd never have felt it. don't you see why they went to all this trouble?"

"honestly," i said. "i can't. i'm simply notthat important to anyone in the world." "you're not," she said dryly. "but your eightthousand dollars was. i'd say if people can steal that much money and convince the victimhe shouldn't go to the police, it was worth their while. you're not very likely to advertisethe claim that you're a psi, are you?" "no," i admitted. "and," she said wearily, standing up. "there'salways the angle that they'll con you by letting you into their imaginary 'lodge' and extractsome kind of dues out of you in return for keeping quiet about your so-called psi powerswhen you gamble. that would serve you right," she concluded.

"for what?" i demanded, beginning to feelpretty icy. "being such an easy mark, for one thing,"shari said. "and for seriously thinking that you might be a pc! that, i must confess, ifind the most comical of all. you, tex, a pc!" "why is that funnier than being a tk?" i demanded,getting up. she waved her hand impatiently. "we see alittle tk here in the lab right along," she said. "at least, there are those who seemto have a small genuine edge on the cards that we can explain no other way. it's small,but apparently exists. but precognition? that's not simply mechanical or kinetic, like tk.pc is something terrifyingly different." her

voice hushed as she said it. "it's a kindof sensitivity that has nothing to do with mere kinetics. it defies time!" she lookedback at me. "i simply find it comical that you thought of yourself as sensitive to thatdegree." "so i've been a fool," i mused. "in a word, yes. you're a normal. they suckeredyou, if you want the jargon." "wait till tonight!" i seethed, beginningto feel my anger grow as my fear dwindled. "let them try to pin the psi label on me!i'll call their bluff!" the tv-phone on shari's desk rang, and shepressed the accept key. "let me speak with tex," a familiar aggressivevoice said. it didn't sound as if it would

stand for much nonsense. shari still had another look of surprise inher. "for you," she said, arching her romantic eyebrows, and turning the instrument aroundso i was facing the 'scope and screen. sure enough, it was wally bupp. "don't doit, tex," he warned me. "don't do what?" "don't play tonight. it won't be practical.we mean business." "so do the laws of libel," i said. "one crackabout my having psi powers—" "yeah, yeah," he interrupted. "you told usabout the lawsuit," he said. "you've got six more days." i could see his hand come up tocut the image.

"hey!" i said. "how'd you know where to reachme?" his sharp face split in that vicious grin."i forgot to tell you," he said. "maragon is a clairvoyant, too." the image faded. "see what i mean?" i said shakily to shari."they sure talk a good game. i didn't tell a soul i was coming here. how'd they catchme?" "occam's razor," she said. "how many wrongnumbers did they try first? come back to earth!" "that snake lefty still worries me," i admitted,going to the door. "shari, i know i've acted nuts, but they nearly got me to flip! thanksfor helping me. i couldn't have stood it to know i was a snake. you got my mind back onthe track again."

"not enough to keep from going right backto the poker table," she observed. there didn't seem any point to telling herhow badly i needed the dough. anyway, i had to prove a point. i was a normal. i left. there were already seven at the table wheni got to nick's after dinner. he didn't want to deal me in. "seven's a full table, huh, tex?" he said. "not for stud, it isn't," i told him. "youcan deal to ten gamblers." "dealer's choice tonight," he protested, whilesome of the gamblers eyed me curiously. "can't deal to more than seven for three-card draw."

"i told you where i stood on this thing lastnight," i snapped. "all right," nick said warmly. "so maybe i'dlike the whole stink to cool down a little, huh?" "not with my dough in it, nick!" i told him,being pretty free with something i didn't have much of any more. "you'll deal me intonight or i'll find another banker!" a gink with a long, scrawny neck put downhis highball and rose from the table. "gosh, fellows," he said. "i'm sort of a fifth wheelaround here, i guess. here, neighbor," he insisted. "take my place." he was all grinsand teeth and bobbed his head around with a rural awkwardness.

"you don't have to do that, snead," nick startedto say. "just as soon kibitz," he insisted, drawingup a chair behind me as i took his seat. "you don't mind, neighbor?" he asked anxiously.i shook my head and yanked out my much-depleted wallet to pay for chips. it took all thatthe lodge hadn't. four hands were enough. on the first, at stud,i had aces back to back and picked up a pair of sevens on the next two cards. two pair,aces high, will win about ninety-nine out of a hundred stud hands. i chewed down onthe panetella in my teeth and bet them like i had them. the tilt of my cigar showed justa little too much confidence as a way to convince some of the gamblers that i was bluffing.it must have been a good act, for three of

them stayed with me all the way. none of themhad much showing, and regardless of what their hole cards were, by the time we had our fifthcards, i had them all beaten. it was raise against raise, but somebody finallycalled, and i turned over my ace in the hole. "aces and sevens, gamblers," i grinned, reachingfor the pot. "i see the sevens," a fat-faced man acrossthe table said around his cigar. "but what's this jazz about aces?" so help me hannah, my hole card was a two!i tried to cover it up. "you'll have to admit i bet them like aces," i said. somebody laughed, but not very hard.

i paid mighty close attention to what i wasdealt the next hand, and turned down a drink to make sure i was cold sober. unfortunately,i got all screwed up over what one of the other gamblers had. it had been a bunch ofspinach when i'd been betting my pair against it, but it was one good-looking straight whenhe flipped the card in the hole. the third hand i dropped out before the fourthcard. after a gambler raked in that pot, my kibitzer asked me: "how much do you have tohave on the first three cards to stay in the pot?" "any pair would convince me," i said. "why?" "what was the matter with the kings you hadshowing?" he asked. they were still on the

table in front of me, king of hearts and kingof clubs. i scarcely dared bet the fourth hand. we hadswitched to three-card draw. i discarded two small diamonds, keeping a pair of nines andan ace for a kicker. on the draw i got one card that claimed to be the fourteen of eaglesand one on which there was a message reading: "these hallucinations are sent to you withthe courtesy of the manhattan chapter of the lodge. are you finding it practical?" i threw the hand in and stood up, shaking."since when don't you bet a full house?" my kibitzer demanded, after the hand was won.he picked up what i had thrown in. the fourteen of eagles turned out to be a nine, and thecard with the hallucination message the other

ace. "got to confuse the other bettors," i said."one of the fundamentals of poker." there really weren't enough chips left infront of me to bother cashing in. i just left them lying there and wandered down to thestreet, flat broke. wally bupp was right. i hadn't found it practical.all of a sudden i saw that it really didn't matter whether i were a psi or not. the importantquestion had always been whether lefty and the others were psis. if so, they might beon the level about my psi powers—which meant i was right back being a snake again. andif they weren't, it was a simple case of blackmail, which at least let me rejoin the human race.on that basis, i was in tough shape. occam's

razor has no answer for hallucinations. eitheryou've had them or you hadn't. i had. nobody would change my mind on that score. that madesnead, and presumably lefty, a psi. and me, too. but—what if they were mistaken? shari'stests looked conclusive to me. i saw that as the only way out. i had to insist on atest in their presence. and that meant i had to get in touch with wally bupp. my kibitzer came stalking out of the building,gangling and gawky. "didn't mean to spoil your luck, neighbor," he said. "don't give it a second thought, snead," isaid.

"call me mortimer," he said. "you mind a wordof advice, neighbor?" he asked, bobbing his head around and grinning in a self-consciousway. "next time, bet that fourteen. highest card in the deck. beats all the others!" "you lousy snake!" i gasped. i'd learned betterthan to take a poke at him. lefty had taught me my lesson on that one. snead might turnout to be a tk as well as a hallucinator, and i wanted no more heart attacks. he handed me a card. "there'll be somebodyat this number all night, neighbor. gamblers anonymous." he faded off down the dark street. the cardmerely said:

"manhattan chapter no 5-5600" shari must have had a swell time at dinnerwith some guy who didn't gamble, because she didn't come home until nearly midnight. iknow because i dialed her apartment every ten minutes until i got her face on the screen. she was still dressed for dinner and had asort of tiara over her thick tresses. "what is it?" she said. "no!" she said. "hasn't this gone—?" "well, then, am i crazy?" i cut in on her. her lips compressed. "it's a lot more likely,"she decided. "why?"

"either i'm nuts," i told her. "or those charactersreally are psis." she was reaching up to cut the image when i caught her interest. "isthere such a thing as a psi who can induce hallucinations?" i demanded. "no." flatly. "they've got me sold that they can do it,"i said. "what does occam's razor say about that?" "you idiot!" she exploded. "they don't believeyou are a pc any more than i do!" she was sure sensitive about my having any precognition! "o.k.," i said. "then you make them eat it.aren't you the one who knows all about exposing

charlatans?" that was the right button. "certainly," sharisaid. "i'll pick you up in ten minutes," i said. "now? midnight?" "this is the pay-off," i said, and cut theimage. i dialed the number snead had given me. "manhattan chapter," the operator cartoonsaid. "this is george robertson," i said. "mortimersnead told me there'd be somebody there to talk to me. maybe lefty."

"snead?" the cartoon said, frowning. "no onehere by that—oh! wait a moment. dr. walter bupp will talk to you," the cartoon said,and wally's face appeared on the screen. "it wasn't practical," i admitted. "six days early," he observed. "nuts," i said. "look, you've got me convincedyou are a psi. that snead puts on a terrific show." "snead?" he frowned. "oh!" he laughed. "yeah,"he agreed condescendingly. "he's red hot, every now and then." "but you haven't sold me that i'm a pc," igrowled. "i've been tested. i'm not. now i

want you to get off my back. you and the restof them! lay off!" he shook his head. "the lodge acts unilaterallyon this," he said soberly. "you've got psi powers. you'll accept our direction in theiruse. or else, tex." "all i ask is a fair test," i said desperately."under laboratory conditions." he gave me an address. "come any time," hesaid. "that's me walking in," i told him. shari had to pay off the 'copter when we gotthere. it wasn't the brownstone i had seen the night before. this place was a medium-sizedoffice building, say a hundred stories or so, quite new. there was no identificationon its front other than the street number.

the directory in the silent and unpopulatedlobby was names, all names. but dr. walter bupp was one of them, in 7704. shari and irode the elevator to seventy-seven in chilly silence. the corridor was dim, with its lights on night-timesetting. stronger light came from an open door quite a way down the hall. it had tobe bupp's office, and it was. wally certainly wasn't surprised to see shari.he shook hands with her briefly, pushing his sharp chin out at her in his gamecock fashion."your mate?" he asked me. "certainly not," she told him. "we're ... uh... colleagues at the university." "that's not what pheola says," he told hersourly, pointing to chairs we could take.

"pheola?" shari questioned. "a powerful pc," wally said. "she predictedyou would accompany tex tonight." "oh, really," shari said scathingly. "i was there," i told her. "she really did." "let's not be diverted by sideshows," sharisaid. "we're here to measure the psi powers of tex robertson, not to talk over the reputedclairvoyance of some dim and misty character." "precognition," wally corrected her. "stickaround, dr. king. pheola will be down a little later. she thinks tex is something special." that was not going to make a good interchange,so i cut in. "dr. king is a professional in

this field—" i started. wally waved a disgusted hand. "we know allabout dr. king and her field," he said. "proving that psi powers don't exist, right, dr. king?" shari bristled. it was hard to stay friendlyin any talk with bupp. "you know my field," she said, about twenty degrees below zero."i accept any and all evidence, regardless what it proves! there's a lot of talk aboutpsi powers, but precious little that can ever be detected under laboratory conditions!" "oh, well," wally bupp grinned. "that's notso strange. all members of the lodge are cautioned to stay away from laboratories. you've beentesting normals. what do you expect for results?"

"then you show me!" she stormed. "go on with you," he grinned. "i thought itwas tex's powers you wanted tested. mine are irrelevant." "i thought so," she said triumphantly. "charlatan!" for a moment the grin flickered off his faceand i tensed to catch shari if she should start to drop. but i guess he thought betterof it. "some other time," he said. "let's get thisover with. make it simple. you may have some statistical objections to my technique tonight,but i'm not looking for fringe effects. if this hot-eyed swain of yours is any good atall, he'll bat a thousand." he got a deck

of cards out of his desk drawer and fannedit out face up so that he could pluck the two of spades and the two of hearts from thedeck. the rest he put back in his desk. he put his hands under the desk, with thetwo cards in them, produced the cards again, face down, and laid them in a thin stack onthe desk before all of us. "what's on top?" he said. "red or black?" "how will you score?" shari insisted. he scowledat her and tossed a squeeze counter across the desk. "you score," he said. "it really isn't necessary.tex will either be right all the time or it won't matter."

but before i could call the top card, theoffice door opened behind us. i looked around, expecting pheola. instead it was milly withthe down, down hose. only this time she was decently dressed in a dark two-piece suitand wore make-up. she certainly was no more talkative than before, nor did wally introduceher. shari was perfectly equal to the occasion and looked through milly with composure. thistakes about three generations of overbreeding. "try it," wally insisted. "what's on top?" i hit it. then i missed it. then i hit threein a row. it wasn't fast work, because wally hid the cards under his desk after each guess,shuffled the two cards around and then laid them before me again. this went on for abouttwenty minutes. at that point shari spoke.

"that makes exactly three hundred tries,"she said, looking at the counter in her hand. "have you been keeping score, mr. bupp?" "i thought you were." "so i was," she snapped, throwing up her tiaraedhead. he sure brought out the worst in people. "tex has been right exactly one hundred andfifty times. he's never been more than five tries to the good in the whole series." "interesting," wally said. i took my first decent breath in the day."this ought to let me off the hook," i said to him. "are you convinced?"

he shrugged. "how about it, milly?" he asked. "a random sample," she said. "he doesn't wantto score. he didn't try." shari was ready for that one. she turned andspoke to milly: "you have ways of knowing what tex was thinking?" she asked sweetly. "yes." "name any three!" shari lashed at her furiously.the solid woman wasn't the least bit bowled over. "read his mind," she said matter-of-factly."just like i can tell that you're getting ready to screech 'charlatan!' at me, and likeyou think i got a cast-iron girdle and homely

shoes. well, they're comfortable, dearie,which is more than you can say for those high-heeled slippers of yours. that left little toe ofyours is killing you, dearie!" shari's lips moved, but her mouth was as emptyof sound as her face was of blood. milly had hit the bull's-eye. "everybody relax a moment," wally said. "tellme, dr. king, what's your attitude toward pc?" "i don't have any!" she snapped. "it's a phenomenon.i have as much attitude toward it as i do toward osmosis or toward peristalsis. none." "would you consider a person fortunate topossess the power of precognition?" wally

asked her. shari's head came up. "if there were sucha thing," she said, much more quietly. "yes. i should imagine that precognition would bea powerful talent." "if you have no emotional bias against psias such," he went on smoothly, "you'd be happy for tex if he were a pc." her eyebrows drew together. she looked atme, veiling her violet eyes as if to hide her thoughts from us. "i would consider texquite fortunate. but only if you could show that such a thing really existed," she saidmore loudly. "how about you, tex?" wally asked me.

"nuts," i said. "you can't make me like theidea of being a snake, no matter how you dress it up." i shook my head. "psi powers are themark of a diseased mind, for my dough. they're pure poison. what have they ever done foryou?" i insisted rudely. "made me a surgeon," he said. "never!" shari said hotly. "ask tex," wally suggested. "he felt me puta lift on his coronary artery. i'm a tk surgeon—i've got enough tk to put clamps on inaccessiblearteries and feel out mechanical disorders of the body. check it. i'm on the staff atuniversal hospital." "and what are you doing here?" she argued.

"meeting my obligation to the lodge," he said."this is where i got my training, right in this building." "i thought that brownstone house was the lodge,"i said. "no," he said. "that's just the grand master'sresidence. the lodge provides quarters for its brass. this building is the real chapterhouse." he heaved a long sigh and dug into his draweragain. "you can beat it, milly," he said. "thanks." "i know," she told him from the door. shehad started out long before he spoke. impressive stuff, but it got a sniff from shari.

what wally got out of his desk had a refreshingshape and color. it was oblong. it was green. it was money. it was, for a fact, a stackof one thousand dollar bills. wally shuffled the two cards under his deskagain and piled them two-deep in front of shari and me. "you heard what dr. king said," wally remindedme. "she'll love you no less for being a pc. now we'll play the game a little more realistically.every time you guess the top card right, tex, i'm going to give you a thousand dollars.no strings attached. when you miss, you give one back. but if you have none to give, youdon't have to pay. you can't lose. maybe you can win. all set?"

"one minute," i demanded. "shari, is thisa fair test?" she shrugged. "why not?" "is it gambling?" she smiled faintly, her first sign of relaxation."hardly," she said. "then you don't mind if i win?" she found a laugh this time. "you can try,"she corrected me. "this could be our nest egg," i said. she blushed. "if that's a proposal," she saidtartly. "the answer is 'no.'" "i'll talk to you later," i growled. "wheni'm richer!"

i looked at the back of the card on the desk.wally was leaning back in his swivel chair and wasn't within four feet of the pasteboards.if there was any hanky-panky, i couldn't see how he planned to work it. "heart," i said. "why don't you turn it over, dr. king?" wallysuggested. "remove any possible chance of manipulation." it was the two of hearts thatshari turned over. i was a thousand dollars richer. i won the next. and the next. my stomach tightenedup. every thousand dollars drove another nail into my coffin—went that much farther toprove i was a snake. well, i wasn't!

i missed the fourth one. "cut that out!" wally snapped at me. i jumpeda foot. i had tried to miss it. with a sickening realization of doom, i calledthe next four right. "stop it!" shari screeched, grabbing at thecards. "i'll shuffle!" she announced. she hid the pasteboards from me with her body,and took care, in putting them before me on the desk, that i didn't see the face of thebottom card. her eyes were violet pools of hate and rageand she spoke to me: "now try it!" "spade!" that made eight straight. even shari succumbed to the ghastly fascinationof it. there had been fifty thousand dollars

in the stack of bills wally had taken fromhis desk. soon all fifty of the bills were stacked in front of me. except for the onetime i had tried to, i had never missed. lefty stuck his sharp chin at shari. "i'dcall that a fairly convincing string," he said. "will you concede, dr. king?" she gave him an awful mouthful of silence.a pitiless blackness descended over my spirit. i looked at the money in front of me. it hadbeen like selling my soul to the devil. there it was, all that money. all i'd had to giveup was any claim to being a human—i wasn't a normal any more. i was a psi! then shari was talking, in short gasping bursts,half choking, half sobbing. "no wonder tex

is in a whirl," she said. "i've seen somegood illusions, worked by the best light-fingered operators in the country, but nothing to comparewith this! just let me see you match this charade in my laboratory! with my apparatus!"she meant her playing cards. wally was sweet and reasonable. "you dealtand shuffled most of the hands yourself," he reminded her. "i never touched the cards.how could i control them?" he grinned a little more sharply. "and you can't call it tk,"he went on. "did you feel the cards move or twitch or resist you as you shuffled them?it has to be pc." she blew her top on that one. it's sickeningto see someone you love goaded past all endurance and break down into screams and wild gestures.

"aah!" she cried, shaking her head blindly."before i believe that tex robertson can feel things that i can't feel, i'll accept anyother explanation. what are those cards of yours? small tv screens? is this more electronichokum?" wally quietly tore one of the cards in two."now i understand," he said. "that's the real reason." i looked my surprise at him, and shari quieteddown just a little. "relax, dr. king," he advised her. "the possession of psi powersisn't a mark of moral superiority. part of the problem in the lodge is that psi powersare possessed as often by evil and stupid people as by the good and intelligent. yes,i know that you think you deserve precognition,

dr. king. but that ain't the way the ballbounces. you're a normal, dr. king, and that's all you'll ever be." he got a face full of fingers for his trouble.shari leaped to her feet and really slapped him in the kisser. she stormed out of there.i started to follow, but a tug at my earlobe signaled me to stop. "hold on a minute, tex," wally said sympathetically."you're one of us now." i had to go after her. "i love her," i saidhopelessly. "i can't see her hurt and upset like that. i've got to—" but he was shaking his head. "you haven'tgot a chance," wally said. "she'll never forgive

you for having precognition. that's why shemade the study of psi her life-work. she's wanted pc for herself, and was sure she waspure enough of heart to deserve to have the power. well, she doesn't have it, and she'llhate you for having what she thinks she deserves. forget her." talk about your cup brimming over! well, ifi had to get used to being cut off from the human race, perhaps shari was the place tostart. that's what happens to superhumans! there was one desperate hope. "this wasn'thallucination?" i tried. "no, tex," he said calmly. "this was on thelevel. just for fun," he went on. "can you do it when there isn't any money riding onit?"

reluctantly i came back to his desk and lookeddown at the back of the top card. "heart," i said dully. i hit ten in a row for him.the spade was on top four times, the heart six times. "and was that on the level?" i asked. he scowled at me and chewed his thin lips."yeah," he said. "that settles it," i said, sagging back intomy seat. "i'm a snake. a rotten pc!" "don't you believe it!" wally growled, lungingout of his chair. he started to pace back and forth across the office, his chin stuckway out ahead of him as he prowled. "i don't know what you are, tex," he declared. "butyou're no pc!"

"i'm a normal after all!" i gasped, feelinga surge of blessed relief. he swiped at the air with a hand. "don't besilly!" he snapped. "you've got a psi power so incredible that—" he whirled on me whilei died for good. "you explain it," he insisted. "after yourlovely dr. king flew out of here, i shuffled the cards ten times under the desk, and youhit ten in a row, right?" "right." dismally. "i cheated on the shuffle," he told me. "iused tk to make sure that i put the two of spades on top all ten times." "no," i insisted. "six times the heart wason top. you turned them over yourself."

"that's just it," he whispered, leaning towardme. "i put that spade on top every time! i did! but when i turned it over, more thanhalf the time it was a heart. what did you do?" "you mean i'm a hallucinator?" i asked. "look,this is getting ridiculous! i was kidding myself, too?" "nonsense. it was real." his face jerked insurprise. "you couldn't!" he gasped, as the idea hit him. "but you did!" he reminded himself."wait till maragon hears this!" and then he told me. it couldn't be, i knew.but it was. he proved it to me—or i proved it to us.

at some stage you have to get excited aboutit, if it's no more than a grisly fascination. at that, it was dawn before we could stopour intoxicated talk. maragon had been yanked out of bed again, and when he heard the news,woke up a darned sight faster than the night before. pheola of the race-horse legs joinedus, and several other psis as well. before it was over the grand master had put on aridiculous piece of regalia and mumbled me into probationary membership in the lodge.there was nothing creepy about the ritual—only about the way i felt. i guess, if we hadn't gotten hungry, we'dbe there yet. wally had one last little wrinkle for me as i started down the corridor forthe elevator.

"pheola," he called. "yes, darlin' billy," she said, coming tohis side. "how's tex going to make out with that overeducatediceberg he's hot after?" he asked her. i flinched at the thought of shari—i was getting usedto considering her a memory. pheola looked into the corner for a moment."oh, yum!" she said, smiling and showing the braces on her teeth. she kissed me. i thinki was about as startled as wally was. "just so you let her be the only cassandra," shesaid. "and you call that an iceberg?" she looked at me curiously. "you'd better starteating red meat, tex," she told me, and would say no more.

i had a heck of a time getting shari on the'phone. an hour before lunch she caved in and accepted my call. she looked pale and shaken, even in the blackand white of the screen. "please," she said. "i've had all i can stand. you stayed thereall night, didn't you?" "i'm not a pc, shari," i said. nothing else would have caught her ear. "not?" "proved it before i left," i said. "i canprove it to you, too." "ridiculous. you can't prove a negative."

"well, in a manner of speaking. what i cando is show you how the card trick was worked." i had her hooked. "you mean it? it reallywas a trick after all?" she said, slumping. "it sure wasn't pc," i said. "let me showyou." "at the lab," shari said. "i'll be there inten minutes." a couple graduate students were there, foolingaround with rhine cards when we arrived, and shari chased them out without ceremony. shelocked the door behind them. we were to have privacy. she didn't bother with her lab coatthis time. "show me," she insisted. "the apparatus, shari," i grinned. she gaveme a deck of cards, and pulled out the two

of hearts and two of spades. "we'll do it face-up," i said. "so you cansee how it's done!" i laid the two cards side by side on her blotter,face up. "now put a finger on each one." i directed. "and watch them like a hawk. whatcard is under your right forefinger?" "heart," shari said. "wrong," i told her. "spade." they could have heard that shriek clear tokeokuk. good thing we were in a sound-proof laboratory. i got her calmed down after a while. "it didn'thappen!" she insisted, clutching at her temples.

"if you won't holler," i said. "i'll do itagain. remember, it's just a phenomenon, like osmosis." "it is not!" she gasped. but i did it for her. ten times in a row.the cards changed under her fingers without moving. "so it's not pc," i said. "oh, tex, but what is it?" "you agree it's real?" shari nodded. "it's real. you can do it, whateverit is. what is it?"

"tk," i told her. "telekinesis." "nonsense," she said. "are you trying to makeme believe i wouldn't have felt the cards move if you'd snapped them out from undermy fingers? i was pressing hard on them every time." "i didn't move the cards," i explained. "but you said it was telekinesis!" "sure. i just moved the molecules of pigmentin the printing ink and reassembled them in the opposite cards. you didn't expect to feelmolecular movement, did you?" "no. then it really happened?" i nodded. "whatan incredible power!" she said. a glow of

satisfaction spread over me. "can you reallytest this molecular hypothesis?" she asked. i told her of the hours of demonstrationsi had made during the night. "the perception on scanning part of it goes on at some subconsciouslevel, shari," i said. "but we had evidence that it can be made completely conscious." she shuddered and hugged her arms to herself."i hate to say this to you," she said. "but you're a freak." i took a deep breath and smiled. "unique isthe way the grand master puts it," i said, pleased with myself. "he says it has terrificpossibilities." and then it hit me, that delicious thought that i was among the elect, that ialways had been.

"what possibilities?" shari demanded, recoilingfrom me. "doing card tricks?" "to name a few," i said. "they feel sure ican operate directly on the molecular chain in genes. this means we can alter heredityto suit ourselves. next, why not rearrange the dna molecule in a cancer? if you can changethe genes in one cell, you can change them in another. knock out the ability of cancerouscells to reproduce their own kind and the cancer disappears. a silly one: maragon saysi can be a one-man catalytic cracking station. pipe a liquid through a tube within my tkrange and i can make an equilibrium reaction run uphill as the stuff flows past me. howabout a one-step operation to produce those rare drugs that now take forty-nine separatereactions?"

"this does have a significance for science,"she admitted. "the genetic part is right down your alley. and it's not pc, is it?" "strictly tk," i told her. "you're the onlypc in the family." "family?" she turned pink as i went aroundthe desk after her. "i told you the answer was 'no.'" "i have inside information," i said, pullingher to me. "one of the pc's up at the chapter house said this was what would happen." she didn't fight my kiss more than a coupleseconds. then it was a pure case of self-preservation for me. this girl was a tiger. looks can beawfully deceiving. but she broke away from

"tex!" she gasped. "stop, honey! suppose somebodywalks in." "a pc like you never gets that kind of surprise,"i lied valiantly. "am i?" she whispered. "am i really a pc?" "that's why you locked the door," i said."remember?"