Stranger in a Strange Land

The first man stopped near Smith's friends by the pool, looked at them, took a picture from his pocket, looked at it, looked at Jill. Smith felt her fear mount and he became very alert. Jubal had told him, «Protect Jill. Don't worry about wasting food. Don't worry about anything else. Protect Jill.»

He would protect Jill in any case, even at the risk of acting wrongly. But it was good to have Jubal's reassurance; it left his mind undivided and untroubled.

When the man pointed at Jill and the two men flanking him hurried toward her with their guns of great wrongness, Smith reached out through his Doppelgänger and gave them each that tiny twist which causes to topple away.

The first man stared at where they had been and reached for his gun — and he was gone, too.

The other four started to close in. Smith did not want to twist them. He felt that Jubal would be pleased if he simply stopped them. But stopping a thing, even an ash tray, is work-and Smith did not have his body. An Old One could have managed it, but Smith did what he could, what he had to do.

Four feather touches — they were gone.

He felt intense wrongness from the car on the ground and went to it — grokked a quick decision, car and pilot were gone.

He almost overlooked the car riding cover patrol. Smith started to relax — when suddenly he felt wrongness increase, and looked up.

The second car was coming in for landing.

Smith stretched time to his limit and went to the car in the air, inspected it carefully, grokked that it was choked with wrongness… tilted it into neverness. Then he returned to the group by the pool.

His friends seemed excited; Dorcas was sobbing and Jill was holding and soothing her. Anne alone seemed untouched by emotions Smith felt seething around him. But wrongness was gone, all of it, and with it the trouble that had disturbed his meditations. Dorcas, he knew, would be healed faster by Jill than by anyone — Jill always grokked a hurting fully and at once. Disturbed by emotions around him, uneasy that he might not have acted in all ways rightly at cusp — or that Jubal might so grok — Smith decided that he was now free to leave. He slipped back into the pool, found his body, grokked that it was as he had left it — slipped it back on.

He considered contemplating events at cusp. But they were too new; he was not ready to enfold them, not ready to praise and cherish the men he had been forced to move. Instead he returned happily to the task he had been on. «Sherbet» … «Sherbetlee» . . . «Sherbetzide» —

He had reached «Tinwork» and was about to consider «Tiny» when he felt Jill approaching. He unswallowed his tongue and made himself ready, knowing that his brother Jill could not remain long under water without distress.

As she touched him, he took her face in his hands and kissed her. It was a thing he had learned quite lately and did not grok perfectly. It had the growing-closer of water ceremony. But it had something else, too… something he wanted to grok in perfect fullness.

XVI

HARSHAW DID not wait for Gillian to dig her problem child out of the pool; he left orders for Dorcas to be given a sedative and hurried to his study, leaving Anne to explain (or not) the events of the last ten minutes.«Front!» he called over his shoulder.

Miriam caught up with him. «I must be “front”,» she said breathlessly. «But, Boss, what in the — »

«Girl, not one word.»

«But, Boss — »

«Zip it, I said. Miriam, a week from now we'll sit down and get Anne to tell us what happened. But right now everybody and his cousins will be phoning and reporters will crawl out of trees — and I've got to make some calls first. Are you the sort of female who comes unstuck when she's needed? That reminds me — Make a note to dock Dorcas's pay for the time she spent having hysterics.»

Miriam gasped. «Boss! You just dare and every single one of us will quit!»

«Nonsense.»

«Quit picking on Dorcas. Why, I would have had hysterics myself if she hadn't beaten me to it.» She added, «I think I'll have hysterics now.»

Harshaw grinned. «You do and I'll spank you. All right, put Dorcas down for a bonus for “hazardous duty”. Put all of you down for a bonus. Me, especially.I earned it.»

«All right. Who pays your bonus?»

«The taxpayers. We'll find a way to clip — Damn!» They had reached his study; the telephone was already demanding attention. He slid into the seat and keyed in. «Harshaw speaking. Who the devil are you?»

«Skip it, Doc,» a face answered. «You haven't frightened me in years. How's everything?»

Harshaw recognized Thomas Mackenzie, production manager-in-chief for New World Networks; he mellowed slightly. «Well enough, Tom. But I'm rushed as can be, so — »