money and
prestige were involved. To prove the Lani human would destroy Outworld
Enterprises on Kardon. Yet this thought did not bother him. To his
surprise he had no qualms of conscience. He was perfectly willing to
violate his contract, break faith with his employers, and plot their
ruin. The higher duty came first--the duty to the human race.

He smiled wryly. It wasn't all higher duty. There were some personal
desires that leavened the nobility. To prove Copper human was enough
motivation--actually it was better than his sense of duty. Events,
Kennon reflected, cause a great deal of change in one's attitude.
Although not by nature a plotter, schemes had been flitting through his
mind with machinelike regularity, to be examined and discarded, or to be
set aside for future reference.

He rejected the direct approach. It was too dangerous, depended too much
on personalities, and had too little chance for success. He considered
the possibility of letters to the Brotherhood Council but ultimately
rejected it. Not only was the proof legally insufficient to establish
humanity in the Lani, but he also remembered Alexander's incredible
knowledge of his activities, and there was no reason to suppose that
his present didn't receive the same scrutiny as the past. And if he,
who hadn't written a letter in over a year, suddenly began to write, the
correspondence would undoubtedly be regarded with suspicion and would
probably be examined, and Dirac messages would be out for the same
reason.

He could take a vacation and while he was away from the island he
could inform the Brotherhood. Leaving Flora wouldn't be particularly
difficult, but leaving Kardon would be virtually impossible. His
contract called for vacations, but it expressly provided that they would
be taken on Kardon. And again, there would be no assurance that his
activities would not be watched. In fact, it was probable that they
would be.

There was nothing that could be done immediately. But there were certain
long-range measures that could be started. He could begin preparing a
case that could be presented to the Council. And Beta, when it knew,
would help him. The situation of the Lani was so close to Beta's own
that its obvious merit as a test case simply could not be ignored. If
he could get the evidence to Beta, it would be easy to enlist the aid
of the entire Medico-Technological Civilization. It would take time and
attention to detail; the case, the evid