ble than his arrival in the
city outside of Government Center. He found himself in a city street,
rather narrow, with buildings as usual all about him, whose windows
were either bricked shut, or smashed. There were benches against the
base of one of those buildings, and four or five men, quite unarmed,
lounged upon them. When Calhoun appeared one of them looked up and
then arose. A second man turned to busy himself with something behind
him. They were not grim. They showed no sign of being mad. But Calhoun
had already realized that the appetite which was madness came only
occasionally, only at intervals which could probably be known in
advance. Between one monstrous hunger-spell and another, a para might
look and act and actually be as sane as anybody else. Certainly Dr.
Lett and the President and the Cabinet members who were paras acted
convincingly as if they were not.

One of the men on the benches beckoned.

"This way," he said casually.

Murgatroyd poked his head out of Calhoun's jacket. He regarded these
roughly dressed men with suspicion.

"What's that?" asked one of the five.

"A pet," said Calhoun briefly.

The statement went unchallenged. A man got up, lifting a small tank
with a hose. There was a hissing sound. The spray made a fine, foglike
mist. Calhoun smelled a conventional organic solvent, well-known
enough.

"This's antiseptic," said the man with the spray. "In case you got
some disease inside there."

The statement was plainly standard, and once it had been exquisite
irony. But it had been repeated until it had no meaning any more,
except to Calhoun. His clothing glittered momentarily where the spray
stood on its fibres. Then it dried. There was the faintest possible
residue, like a coating of impalpable dust. Calhoun guessed its
significance and the knowledge was intolerable. But he said between
clenched fists.

"Where do I go now?"

"Anywheres," said the first man. "Nobody'll bother you. Some normals
try to keep you from getting near'em, but you can do as you please."
He added disinterestedly. "To them, too. No police out here!"

He went back to the bench and sat down. Calhoun moved on.

* * * * *

His inward sensations were unbearable, but he had to continue. It was
not likely that instructions would have reached the para organization
yet. There was one. There must be one. But eventually he would be
hunted for even on the unlikely supposition that he'