e isn't--granted. But is there more to it than that? People like
Aarons think so. They think it's a difference between _human_ function
and something else.

And that scares me because it _just isn't true_. I'm as human as anybody
else. But somehow it seems that I'm the one who has to prove it. I
wonder if I ever will. That's why Dr. Custer has to help me. Everything
hangs on that. I'm to go up to Boston next week, for final studies and
testing.

If Dr. Custer can do something, what a difference that will make! Maybe
then I could get out of this whole frightening mess, put it behind me
and forget about it. With just the psi alone, I don't think I ever can.

* * * * *

_Friday, 19 May._ Today Lambertson broke down and told me what it was
that Aarons had been proposing. It was worse than I thought it would be.
The man had hit on the one thing I'd been afraid of for so long.

"He wants you to work against normals," Lambertson said. "He's swallowed
the latency hypothesis whole. He thinks that everybody must have a
latent psi potential, and that all that is needed to drag it into the
open is a powerful stimulus from someone with full-blown psi powers."

"Well?" I said. "Do you think so?"

"Who knows?" Lambertson slammed his pencil down on the desk angrily.
"No, I don't think so, but what does that mean? Not a thing. It
certainly doesn't mean I'm right. Nobody knows the answer, not me, nor
Aarons, nor anybody. And Aarons wants to use you to find out."

I nodded slowly. "I see. So I'm to be used as a sort of refined
electrical stimulator," I said. "Well, I guess you know what you can
tell Aarons."

He was silent, and I couldn't read him. Then he looked up. "Amy, I'm not
sure we can tell him that."

I stared at him. "You mean you think he could _force_ me?"

"He says you're a public charge, that as long as you have to be
supported and cared for, they have the right to use your faculties. He's
right on the first point. You _are_ a public charge. You have to be
sheltered and protected. If you wandered so much as a mile outside these
walls you'd never survive, and you know it."

I sat stunned. "But Dr. Custer--"

"Dr. Custer is trying to help. But he hasn't succeeded so far. If he
can, then it will be a different story. But I can't stall much longer,
Amy. Aarons has a powerful argument. You're psi-high. You're the first
full-fledged, wide-open, free-wheeling psi-high that's ever appeare