years I can live with you before I am old and you tire of me. With those
years I can be content."

"But I can't," Kennon said. "Call me selfish if you wish, but I want you
with me as long as I live. I don't want to live my life without you."

"You want too much," Copper said softly. "But if it makes you happy to
try to get it, I shall help. And if we do not succeed you will at least
be happier for trying. And if you are happy"--she shrugged--"then the
rest makes little difference."

That was the crux of the matter, Kennon reflected bitterly. He was
convinced she was human. She was not. And until her mind could be
changed on that point she would help him but her heart wouldn't be in
it. And the only thing that would convince her that she was human would
be a child--a child of his begetting. He could perhaps trick her with
an artificial insemination of Lani sperm. There were drugs that could
suspend consciousness, hypnotics that would make her believe anything
she was told while under their influence.

But in the end it would do no good. All witnesses in Brotherhood court
actions were examined under psychoprobe, and a hypnotic was of no value
against a lie detector that could extract the deepest buried truth.
And he would be examined too. The truth would out--and nothing would be
gained. In fact--everything would be lost. The attempt at trickery would
prejudice any court against the honest evidence they had so painfully
collected.

He sighed. The only thing to do was to go on as they were--and hope that
the evidence would hold. With Betan legal talent at their back it
might. And, of course, they could try to produce a child as nature had
intended. They could try--but Kennon knew it would not succeed. It never
had.

CHAPTER XV

Copper had been acting strangely of late, Kennon thought as he rolled
over in his bed and watched her standing before the full-length mirror
on the bathroom door. She pivoted slowly before the glass, eying herself
critically, raising her arms over her head, holding them at her sides,
flexing her supple spine and tightening muscles that moved like silken
cords beneath her golden skin.

"What are you trying to do--become a muscle dancer?" Kennon asked idly.

She whirled, a crimson blush deepening the tan of her face. "You were
supposed to be asleep," she said.

"I'm an unregenerate heel," he replied, "and I don't sleep too well
nowadays unless you're beside me."

"Well--I suppose y