we try both. Once more--watch it! All right, now._

She sat frozen in the chair. She was trying; the sweat stood out on her
forehead. Aarons sat tense, smoking, his fingers twitching as he watched
the red and green cubes bounce on the white backdrop. Lambertson watched
too, but his eyes were on the girl, not on the cubes.

It was hard work. Bit by bit she began to grab; whatever I had felt in
her mind seemed to leap up. I probed her, amplifying it, trying to draw
it out. It was like wading through knee-deep mud--sticky, sluggish,
resisting. I could feel her excitement growing, and bit by bit I
released my grip, easing her out, baiting her.

"All right," I said. "That's enough."

She turned to me, wide-eyed. "I--I did it."

Aarons was on his feet, breathing heavily. "It worked?"

"It worked. Not very well, but it's there. All she needs is time, and
help, and patience."

"But it worked! Lambertson! Do you know what that means? It means I was
right! It means others can have it, just like she has it!" He rubbed his
hands together. "We can arrange a full-time lab for it, and work on
three or four latents simultaneously. It's a wide-open door, Michael!
Can't you see what it means?"

Lambertson nodded, and gave me a long look. "Yes, I think I do."

"I'll start arrangements tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow. You'll have to wait until next week."

"Why?"

"Because Amy would prefer to wait, that's why."

Aarons looked at him, and then at me, peevishly. Finally he shrugged.
"If you insist."

"We'll talk about it next week," I said. I was so tired I could hardly
look up at him. I stood up, and smiled at my girl. Poor kid, I thought.
So excited and eager about it now. And not one idea in the world of what
she was walking into.

Certainly Aarons would never be able to tell her.

* * * * *

Later, when they were gone, Lambertson and I walked down toward the
lagoon. It was a lovely cool evening; the ducks were down at the water's
edge. Every year there was a mother duck herding a line of ducklings
down the shore and into the water. They never seemed to go where she
wanted them to, and she would fuss and chatter, waddling back time and
again to prod the reluctant ones out into the pool.

We stood by the water's edge in silence for a long time. Then Lambertson
kissed me. It was the first time he had ever done that.

"We could go away," I whispered in his ear. "We could run out on Aarons
an