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"Oh, the shop." Samul turned and followed her inside.
Over the ice cream, he asked, "How do you fog film?"
"I don't know," she answered shyly.
"You don't?"
"I knew you were going to take a picture. I saw it in your mind. I
didn't want you to."
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"So you fogged the film but don't know how, is that it?"
"There's a lot I don't know," she answered thoughtfully.
"Like how you walk through a metal fence?"
"Oh, that. I don't really." Her quick smile was that of a little girl.
"Mr. Denton -- he's the gardener -- just thinks I do."
"Why would he think that?"
"Well, I have a key, and I don't want him to see me."
"So he doesn't see you, is that it?"
"He thinks he doesn't," she corrected. "There's a difference."
"But it's still a mental influence, like fogging film."
"I suppose." She smiled again. "I really don't understand it."
Samul relaxed, somehow glad that she didn't walk through metal fences.
That would have been too much. He felt better, too, that she didn't fully
understand the powers available to her mind. But she was just a child. He
couldn't expect her to reason like an adult.
When they finished their ice cream, he leaned across the table and said, "Now
tell me about the aliens -- who and what they are."
Her eyes grew wide. "I really don't know, Mr. Smith."
"You don't?"
"Only what I told you about Zandro...and those things called the Ikus. I
mentioned them on the communicator."
He nodded. "Did you find out what they are?"
"Just voices. Of course they're more than that, but that's all Danny knows. I
talked with one of them."
"You did?" His head jerked up. "Do they speak our language?"
She shook her head. "But Danny knows their language, or quite a bit of it. He
told me how to call them, what to say. They put me through to Zandro. I
guess he's the main alien."
"He speaks our language?"
"He learned it from Danny a long time ago." She caught his puzzled look and
explained, "He learned it from Danny's memory cells -- the things Danny heard
and sensed even before his own conscious awareness."
"Is that possible?" he asked disbelievingly.
"I believe it is. Danny says so."
"What did you say?"
"To Zandro? Nothing. He shut me out." She shivered. "He has a very powerful
mind."
"Perhaps he was afraid to listen," Samul mused. It struck him that he had
misjudged the girl; she was far more comprehending than he had believed.
She lifted her head suddenly. "Oh, yes, there's another one."
"Another Iku?"
"The Lord of the Stars." She barely whispered the words. "From what
Danny says, he's even more important than Zandro. He sounds it, doesn't he,
Mr. Smith?"
"The title's quite impressive," Samul acknowledged. "Is he on Wenda?"
"I don't believe Danny knows." Her eyes grew troubled. "He said that all
humans had to die."
"He said what?" He stared at her.
"We had to die. Everyone. He said the Universe belonged to his race. Do you
really think he meant it, Mr. Smith?"
"Perhaps..."
"But that's not the most important thing. It's not the reason I had to see
you."
"Oh!" Samul studied her.
"Danny's in danger. I guess I told you that, but it's worse now.
Zandro's trying to make him die."
"Make him die?" He felt a sudden alarm. "How can he do that if he's just a
voice?"
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"By mental power," she explained gravely. "He's trying to make him stop his
heart."
"Why does he listen?" he exclaimed. It didn't make sense.
"Zandro comes when he's asleep. I think he hypnotizes him."
"Can't Danny run away, hide?"
"He did," she said urgently, "but he has to sleep. That's when Zandro comes.
The birds keep finding him."
"Birds?" He stared at her.
"Metal birds, that's what he calls them. They have beady red eyes, and their
wings don't move. They keep following him. He was hiding in a cave, but
they found him. Now he's running again and -- oh, yes! -- he saw Zandro."
"He did?" Samul was startled.
"He lives in a pool, and he's got tentacles."
Samul gulped. "You mean he's a fish?"
"Well, no, or yes. He doesn't know. But that's where he saw him -- on the
bottom. There was a gigantic eye staring up..."
"Through the water?"
She nodded solemnly. "It was glaring. Then he started coming out of the pool.
He...it was monstrous -- huge and black and slimy. Danny got frightened and
ran. That's when the metal birds started following him."
"Sounds weird," Samul said. He drew a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped
his brow, wondering how much was the girl's imagination. Perhaps she had
stayed glued to the triscreen too long.
"It is weird, Mr. Smith."
He gazed severely at her. "Fish don't operate spaceships or conquer star
systems," he said pointedly.
"How do you know?" she demanded. "There are a billion, billion, billion stars
-- billions of kinds of life. Do you believe it's all like this?"
Awestruck, Samul gazed at her. She was just a child, fourteen or fifteen at
most, yet she had measured the Universe, at least in her young mind. She had
contemplated the possibilities. It was fantastic, almost as fantastic as what
she was saying. He nodded mutely.
"If a fish can build an android, it can build a spaceship," she declared.
"I believe you're right."
"And if it has a concept of the Universe, it's smart, Mr. Smith."
"I'll have to admit that," he acceded.
"Those things out there -- Zandro, the Lord of the Stars, the Ikus --
are dangerous, Mr. Smith. It scares me to think of them." She looked solemnly
at him. "That's why you have to go there, get Danny before something happens."
"Go there?" he echoed.
"I told him you were coming."
"You told him that?"
"That's why you have to go, Mr. Smith. He's trying to hide, stay away from
Zandro till you get there."
"But I can't go," he exclaimed.
"Why not?" She looked calmly at him.
"Well" -- Samul grew flustered -- "the Regent Administrator has put a
prohibition against it. That's Regulation CO1404B."
"Is he afraid?"
He smiled weakly. "I believe he is."
"Can he act in opposition to the law?"
"What do you mean?"
"Just that." Her thoughtful gaze made him uneasy. "If the law empowers a
person to do something, can he prohibit it?"
Samul contemplated her, thinking the question a sharp one. Too sharp.
What was she driving at? The question perturbed him. He saw her waiting
expression and said, "I don't believe so. Certain regulations were enacted to
curb administrative power -- safeguards against despotism, you might call
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