sufficient. They had converted part of their own
kind into men, their own kind of men, and theoretically there wouldn't
be any more insecurity brought on by the kind of male psychology that
had turned the Earth around for so long.

All right, drop it right there then, he thought. It's about all over.
It's all over but the requiem. Sometime later he was in a mood where he
didn't mind it when an impersonal face appeared on the screen and looked
right at him and told him the Council's verdict. It was a woman, and her
voice was cold, very cold.

"Mr. Eddie Bowren. The Council has reached a verdict regarding what is
to be done with you. You are to be exterminated. It is painless and we
will make it as pleasant as possible."

"Thanks," Bowren said. A woman's world was so polite, so mannerly, so
remembering of all the social amenities. It would be so difficult after
a while to know when anyone was speaking, or doing anything real.
"Thanks," he said again. "I will do all in my power to make my
extermination a matter of mutual pleasure." By now he was pretty drunk,
had been drunk for some time. He raised his glass. "Here's to a real
happy time of it, baby."

The screen faded. He sat there brooding, and he was still brooding when
the door unlocked and opened softly. He sat there and looked at Gloria
Munsel for a while, wondering why she was here. Why she would look so
provocative, so enchanting, so devastating, whatever other words you
cared to dream up.

She moved toward him with a slight swaying motion that further disturbed
him. He felt her long white fingers rubbing over the stiff wiry beard of
his face. "I dreamed about the way that beard felt last night," she
said. "Silly of me wasn't it? I heard of the way you smell, of the way
you yelled at me, so impolitely. Why did I dream of it, I said this
morning, so now I'm here to find out why."

"Get out and let me alone," Bowren yelled. "I'm going to be
exterminated. So let me alone to my own company."

"Yes, I heard about that verdict," she said. She looked away from him.
"I don't know why they made that choice. Well, I do in a way, they're
afraid of you, your influence. It would be very disruptive socially.
Several of our men--"

"It doesn't matter why," Bowren said. "What matters is that it will be
as pleasant as possible. If you're going to kill a man, be nice about
it."

She stared down at him. Chills rippled down his back as her warm soft
fingers continued to st