said Dr. Lett.
He pressed a button. A lock-door opened. He put the container insideit. The door closed. It could be sterilized before the door on theother side would open, but now it was arranged to sterilize itself toprevent contagion from coming out.
The man behind the glass uttered inaudible cries. He was filled withbeastly, uncontrollable impatience. He cried out at the mechanism ofthe contagion-lock as a beast might bellow at the opening throughwhich food was dropped into its cage.
That lock opened, inside the glass-walled room. The plastic containerappeared. The man leaped upon it. He gobbled its contents, and Calhounwas nauseated. But as the para gobbled, he glared at the twowho--with Murgatroyd--watched him. He hated them with a ferocity whichmade veins stand out upon his temples and fury empurple his skin.
Calhoun felt that he'd gone white. He turned his eyes away and saidsqueamishly:
"I have never seen such a thing before."
"It is new, eh?" Said Dr. Lett in a strange sort of pride. "It is new!I ... even I!... have discovered something that the Med Service doesnot know!"
"I wouldn't say the Service doesn't know about similar things," saidCalhoun slowly. "There are ... sometimes ... on a very small scale ...dozens or perhaps hundreds of victims ... there are sometimes similarirrational appetites. But on a planetary scale ... no. There has neverbeen a ... an epidemic of this size."
He still looked sick and stricken. But he asked:
"What's the result of this ... appetite? What does it do to a para?What change in ... say ... his health takes place in a man after hebecomes a para?"
"There is no change," said Dr. Lett blandly. "They are not sick and theydo not die because they are paras. The condition itself is no moreabnormal than ... than diabetes! Diabetics require insulin. Paras ...something else. But there is prejudice against what paras need! It is asif some men would rather die than use insulin and those who did use itbecame outcasts! I do not say what causes this condition. I do notobject if the Minister for Health believes that jungle creatures creepout and ... make paras out of men." He watched Calhoun's expression."Does your Med Service information agree with me?"
"No-o-o," said Calhoun. "I'm afraid it inclines to the idea of amonstrous cause, but it really isn't much like diabetes."
"But it is!" insisted Lett. "Everything digestible, no matter howunappetizing to a modern man, has been a part of the regular diet ofsome tribe of human savages! Even prehistoric Romans ate dormicecooked in honey! Why should the fact that a needed substance happensto be found in a scavenger...."
"The Romans didn't crave dormice," said Calhoun. "They could eat themor leave them alone."
The man behind the thick glass glared at the two in the outer room. Hehated them intolerably. He cried out at them. Blood vessels in histemples throbbed with his hatred. He cursed them.
* * * * *
"I point out one thing more," said Dr. Lett. "I would like to have theco-operation of the Interstellar Medical Service. I am a citizen ofthis planet and not without influence. But I would like to have mywork approved by the Med Service. I submit that in some areas onancient Earth, iodine was put into the public water-supply systems toprevent goiters and cretinism. Fluorine was put into drinking water toprevent caries. On Tralee the public water supply has traces of zincand cobalt added. These are necessary trace elements. Why should younot concede that here there are trace elements or trace compoundsneeded----"
"You want me to report that," said Calhoun, flatly. "I couldn't do itwithout explaining--a number of things. Paras are madmen, but theyorganize. A symptom of privation is violent yawning. This ...condition appeared only six months ago. This planet has been colonizedfor three hundred years. It could not be a naturally needed tracecompound."
Dr. Lett shrugged, eloquently and contemptuously.
"Then you will not report what all this planet will certify," he saidcurtly. "My vaccine----"
"You would not call it a vaccine if you thought it supplied adeficiency--a special need of the people of Tallien. Could you give mea small quantity of your ... vaccine?"
"No," said Dr. Lett blandly. "I am afraid you are not willing to beco-operative. The little of my vaccine that is available is needed forhigh officials, who must be protected from the para condition at allcosts. I am prepared to make it on a large scale, though, for thewhole population. I will see, then, that you have as much of it as youneed."
Calhoun seemed to reflect.
"No," he admitted, "I'm not ready to co-operate with you, Dr. Lett. Ihave a very uncomfortable suspicion. I suspect that you carry a smallquantity of your vaccine with you all the time. That you cannot bearthe idea of being without it if you should need it. I say that becauseit is a symptom of other ... similar conditions. Of other ... abnormalappetites."
Dr. Lett had been bland and grinning in mockery. But the amusementleft his face abruptly.
"Now ... what do you mean by that?" he demanded.
Calhoun nodded his head toward the para behind the glass wall.
"That poor devil nearly yawned his head off before you gave him hisdiet of scavengers, Dr. Lett. Do you ever yawn like that ... so youmake sure you've always your vaccine with you to stop it? Aren't you apara, Dr. Lett? In fact, aren't you the ... monstrous cause of ...paras?"
Murgatroyd cried "_Chee! Chee! Chee!_" in great agitation, because Dr.Lett had snatched up a dissecting scalpel and crouched to leap uponCalhoun. But Calhoun said:
"Easy, Murgatroyd! He won't do anything regrettable!"
He had a blaster in his hand, bearing directly upon the greatest andmost skillful physician on Tallien Three. And Dr. Lett did not doanything regrettable. But his eyes burned with the fury of a madman.
III
Five minutes later, or possibly ten, Calhoun went out to where theMinister for Health paced miserably up and down the corridor outsidethe laboratory. The Minister looked white and sick, as if despitehimself he'd been picturing the demonstration Lett would have givenCalhoun. He did not meet Calhoun's eyes. He said uneasily:
"I'll take you to the Planetary President, now."
"No," said Calhoun. "I got some very promising information from Dr.Lett. I want to go back to my ship first."
"But the President is waiting to see you!" protested the Minister forHealth. "There's something he wants to discuss!"
"I want," Calhoun observed, "to have something to discuss with him.There is intelligence back of this para business. I'd almost call itdemoniac intelligence. I want to get back to my ship and check on whatI got from Dr. Lett."
The Minister for Health hesitated, and then said urgently:
"But the President is extremely anxious----"
"Will you," asked Calhoun politely, "arrange for me to be taken backto my ship?"
The Minister for Health opened his mouth and closed it. Then he saidapologetically--and it seemed to Calhoun--fearfully:
"Dr. Lett has been our only hope of conquering this ... this epidemic.The President and the Cabinet felt that they had to ... give him fullauthority. There was no other hope! We didn't know you'd come. So ...Dr. Lett wished you to see the President when you left him. It won'ttake long!"
Calhoun said grimly:
"And he already has you scared! I begin to suspect I haven't even timeto argue with you!"
"I'll get you a car and driver as soon as you've seen the President.It's only a little thing----"
Calhoun growled and moved toward the exit from the laboratory. Pastthe sentries. Out to the open air. Here was the wide clear space whichonce had been a park for the city and the site of the governmentbuilding of Tallien Three. A little distance away, children playedgaily. But there were women who watched them with deep anxiety. Thisparticular space contained all the people considered certainly free ofthe para syndrome. Tall building surrounded the area which once hadbeen tranquil and open to all the citizens of the planet. But nowthose buildings were converted into walls to shut out all but thechosen--and the chosen were no better off for h
aving been someone'schoice.
"The capital building's over yonder," said the Minister, at onceurgently and affrightedly and persuasively. "It's only a very shortwalk! Just yonder!"
"I still," said Calhoun, "don't want to go there." He showed theMinister for Health the blaster he'd aimed at Dr. Lett only minutesago. "This is a blaster," he said gently. "It's adjusted for low powerso that it doesn't necessarily burn or kill. It's the adjustment usedby police in case of riot. With luck, it only stuns. I used it on Dr.Lett," he added unemotionally. "He's a para. Did you
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