had closed in her mind, or
some additional new channel had opened, for TT's purpose in tricking
her into contact with the reckless, mocking beings outside was
suddenly and numbingly clear.

And what it meant immediately was that she'd have to get out of the
house without being spotted at it, and go some place where she could
be undisturbed for half an hour.

She realized that Halet and the zoologist were both staring at her.

* * * * *

"Are you ill, dear?"

"No." Telzey stood up. It would be worse than useless to try to tell
these two anything! Her face must be pretty white at the moment--she
could feel it--but they assumed, of course, that the shock of losing
TT had just now sunk in on her.

"I'll have to check on that law you mentioned before I sign anything,"
she told Dr. Droon.

"Why, yes ..." He started to get out of his chair. "I'm sure that can
be arranged, Miss Amberdon!"

"Don't bother to call the Moderator's office," Telzey said. "I brought
my law library along. I'll look it up myself." She turned to leave the
room.

"My niece," Halet explained to Dr. Droon who was beginning to look puzzled,
"attends law school. She's always so absorbed in her studies ... Telzey?"

"Yes, Halet?" Telzey paused at the door.

"I'm very glad you've decided to be sensible about this, dear. But
don't take too long, will you? We don't want to waste Dr. Droon's
time."

"It shouldn't take more than five or ten minutes," Telzey told her
agreeably. She closed the door behind her, and went directly to her
bedroom on the second floor. One of her two valises was still
unpacked. She locked the door behind her, opened the unpacked valise,
took out a pocket edition law library and sat down at the table with
it.

She clicked on the library's view-screen, tapped the clearing and
index buttons. Behind the screen, one of the multiple rows of pinhead
tapes shifted slightly as the index was flicked into reading position.
Half a minute later, she was glancing over the legal section on which
Dr. Droon had based his claim. The library confirmed what he had said.

Very neat of Halet, Telzey thought, very nasty ... and pretty idiotic!
Even a second-year law student could think immediately of two or three
ways in which a case like that could have been dragged out in the
Federation's courts for a couple of decades before the question of
handing Tick-Tock over to the Life Banks became too acute.

Well, H