Panek was fast with a gun. The words
were hardly spoken when he had drawn and fired.

Chapter 20

The twentieth part of Hanlon's mind activating the pigeon in the
ventilator, commanded it to scramble back out the moment he sensed what
that command would be. But it wasn't quick enough.

He felt the burning sensation along the bird's side, and the agony it
suffered. The wing had been almost severed by the shot, and its life was
swiftly ebbing.

He had to get out of that body and quick ... but there were no more
pigeons around except the other nineteen he was already occupying. Nor
did any of them have brain capacity enough to contain more than a
twentieth of his mind.

Desperately he sent the rest of the flock swirling into the air, seeking
other life-forms nearby. There were no other pigeons close enough to
hear their calls nor to get there in time if they did, for the wounded
bird was dying fast.

Nor were there any dogs about, nor cats, nor animals of any kind to be
seen. In desperation Hanlon even tried the trees or plants there, to see
if they had minds like the Guddus--but none of them did.

He dreaded to think what would happen if the brain that a portion of his
mind was occupying died while in his control. Would that part of his
mind then be lost? He had no way of knowing, nor was he anxious to
chance it, for he was terribly afraid it would be so. And he certainly
had proved he had no mind to spare, he thought in disgust. He had really
made a mess of this mission. The only way he could get word to the Corps
was through his body, and if he sent his mind back into that now he was
a deader duck than he seemed to be. For even that twentieth part could
be made to talk.

_Why didn't those pigeons hurry?_

Yet he knew they were searching frantically. This was the weirdest
sensation imaginable. People had often expressed the wish they, could be
in two places at once ... he was in twenty. And each body was connected
with the others by a thin thread of consciousness, yet was thinking and
acting independently.

His composite mind almost grinned. If anyone had told him a year ago
such a thing was possible, he would have called for the paddy-wagon and
rushed that person to the nearest nut-house.

The other parts of his mind were flying all about the enclosed park that
was a part of the great palace, searching, desperately seeking some
other form of life that could be used as a housing for the dying part o