Part 4 (1/2)

It came to rest before her, coalescing into a dark blob, the huge single eye glowing. The mantas, she knew, projected an all-purpose beam from that eye; they both saw and communicated by means of it. Was it trying to tell her something?

”Which one are you?” she inquired experimentally. They could actually see the compressions and rarefactions of the air that made sound; thus, they could in effect hear, though they had no auditory equipment. All their major senses were tied into one -- but what a sense that one was!

The thing jumped up, flattened into its traveling form, and cracked its tail like a whip. Six snaps.

”Hex,” she said. ”Veg's friend. Do you know where he is?”

One snap, meaning YES.

Communication was not difficult, after all. Soon she had ascertained that Veg was in good health and that the manta would conduct her to him.

Veg was resting as she came up. He was leaning against a boulder and chewing on a hunk of dark bread. ”Where's the machine?” Tamme asked, as though this were routine.

”It finally got full and lost its appet.i.te,” he said. ”So it left. Lucky for me; I was almost out of food.”

”You were feeding it?”

”It was bound to eat. Better to feed it what we could spare than let it take its own choice. Like vital supplies -- or people. The thing eats meat as well as metal! But when I started feeding it rocks and sand, it quit. Not too smart.”

So the machine had been attacking him -- and he had foiled it at last by throwing what the desert offered. Veg might not be a genius, but he had good common sense!

Veg considered her more carefully. ”What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?”

”We don't trust you.”

”It figures.” He wasn't even very surprised; she could read his honest minor responses in the slight tension of his muscles, the perspiration of his body, and the rate of breathing. In fact he was intrigued, for he found her s.e.xually appealing.

Tamme was used to that in normals. She was s.e.xually appealing; she had been designed to be that way. Usually she ignored her effect on men; sometimes she used it. It depended on the situation. If s.e.x could accomplish a mission more readily than another approach, why not?

But at the moment her only mission was to keep an eye on the activities of these people. Veg was the simplest of the lot; his motives were forthright, and it was not his nature to lie. She could relax.

”Have some bread,” Veg said, offering her a torn chunk.

”Thank you.” It was good bread; the agents' supplies were always nutritious because their bodies required proper maintenance for best efficiency. She bit down, severing the tough crust with teeth that could as easily cut through the flesh and bone of an antagonist.

”You know, I met one of you agents,” Veg said. ”Name of Subble. You know him?”

”Yes and no. I am familiar with the SU cla.s.s of agent but never met that particular unit.”

”Unit?”

”All agents of a type are interchangeable. You would have had the same experience with any SU, and it would have been very similar with an SO, TA, or TE.” His body tensed in quick anger. Amused, Tamme read the signs. Normals found the concept of human inter-changeability repulsive; they always wanted to believe that every person was unique, even those designed to be un-unique. If only they knew; the camaraderie of ident.i.ty was the major strength of all agents. Tamme never wanted to give up any of her programmed attributes -- unless every agent in her cla.s.s gave them up. She only felt at ease with her own kind, and even other series of agents made her feel slightly uncomfortable.

”Decent sort of a fellow, in his way. I guess he reported all about what we said.”

”No. Subble died without making a report.”

”Too bad,” Veg said with mixed emotion. Again Tamme a.n.a.lyzed him: He was sorry Subble had died but relieved that the report had not been made. Evidently their dialogue had grown personal.

”Agents don't antagonize people unnecessarily,” she said. ”Our job is to ascertain the facts and to take necessary action. We're all alike so that the nature of our reactions can be predetermined and so that our reports need minimal correction for subjectivity or human bias. It is easier on the computer.”