Part 17 (1/2)
”Does that mean you can't tell even me?”
He turned his head and looked into her eyes. ”This isn't like you, Rhoda. Not like you at all.”
”That's silly. I haven't changed.”
”Yes, you have.”
”How?”
”It's hard to say. You don't seem to have the same sense of values any more. You've--”
”Just how have they changed?”
If he sensed any inner fright in her question he said nothing about it.
”For instance, when I told you I'd given up all ideas of going into research, when I said I'd decided to finish out my interns.h.i.+p and establish a practice, you hardly twitched an eyebrow. I thought that would make you happy.”
”It did, darling. I was delighted. But I'm still a woman and that gives me a right to be curious. What _did_ the government man say?”
He sighed and drew her cajoling hand out of his hair. ”They've got some wild idea the man who broke his leg wasn't a man at all. They think he was a synthetic of some kind. An android.”
”Why, that's ridiculous. You saw him. You certainly know a man when you see one.”
”According to Brent Taber, these androids _are_ men, to all intents and purposes, but they're manufactured.”
”That's just utterly insane. Are we paying taxes just to keep a lot of people in Was.h.i.+ngton who don't know the difference between a human being and a--”
”Rhoda! Please! I'm sick of the whole thing and I'd rather not talk about it.”
”But he must have told you more than that. Where do these--these androids come from?”
”He didn't tell us any more than he had to, but I got the idea they think they're from outer s.p.a.ce.”
Rhoda laughed. ”I never heard such foolishness in my life.” She stopped laughing abruptly. ”Who's _us_?”
”What?”
”You said, 'He didn't tell _us_ any more than he had to ...' Who was with you?”
”Oh. Les King. You don't know him.”
She seemed satisfied with the information and probed no farther.
He drew her close and looked very seriously into her eyes. ”You have changed, Rhoda. What's got into you?”
She put her lips to his and whispered, ”Is this changed?” She ran one hand softly and seductively down his body. ”Or that?”
He took her in his arms. ”No, baby, that hasn't changed. I guess I was wrong.”
And as she kissed him, she saw the oddly expressionless face, the cold empty eyes--of John Dennis.