Minnn was pleased. He had a head start, and this human had good running potential. He would have fun. An interne stepped out of a door, the visitor touched his hand, the interne stepped back through the door, rapidly. The searchers swirled down the hall and grabbed the visitor and Monnn made his test. "Not here now," he reported.
The interne strolled into an elevator, went up a story, walked quietly down another corridor. Excitement was percolating through the place almost as though the inmates breathed it. There were many inmates on this floor; he could force into one almost at leisure.
Another elevator jarred to a stop, doors opened, and the searchers bolted out. Chester's face was like a purple plum, his eyes were red and wild. The long chase was teasingly close to ending, and could be frustrated forever.
The interne turned and thumbed his nose at Forge, who gave a bellow of anger. As the men surged toward him, the attendant sprinted a few yards, reached out and touched a patient. The halls were full of them; attracted by the excitement. Unobtrusively the patient touched another, who in turn touched another, who disappeared in the crowd.
"Go back to your rooms," shouted the director of the hospital. "You are impeding a hunt for a fugitive."
But the patients didn't see any fugitive, and they stayed, and more kept coming.
There was a disconcerting blur of thought-emotion in the patient Minnn was using. The pursuers were the length of the hall away; he caused his host to turn, shriek a bad word, and thumb her nose at them.
They came running, impeded by the crowd. The patient turned a corner, touched another patient, who touched another.
It was quite an experience, Minnn decided. He had whirled through a rich kaleidoscope of minds and emotions; in one woman there had been a fountain of ecstacy he would have to go back and sample sometime. He had come to the perfect place. Except as he chose to do it, to tease, these inmates could not reveal him, and no Ravian could detect him. He could stay here an indefinite length of time--wait them out--then go back to the toy chest where his husk lay--or trace Sally Odum's memory for it in case she had moved it--and repossess himself.