"We'll get him for you," said Chester more firmly than he felt.
"We feel you may fail," said the Ravian. "We ask permission to send our own searchers, no quota on numbers, open-area travel permission."
Chester went white. "I'm afraid we can't grant that. I promise we'll get him for you."
"Well--population. There aren't enough volunteers to host any more than the present quota, and of course you can't get around without hosts."
"How human," said Monnn through the attendant. "You are afraid of us. Yet you know we have no desire at all for this planet, and that we know you know this.
"Why do you lie? On our planet you would be treated as Minnn will be--your personality dismembered, the useful parts assigned to another, the imperfect disposed of."
"Be that as it may," said Chester, a chill in his spine. "We will find this fugitive ourselves."
"Of course. And if you do not, within two of your days, we must come to search ourselves. One more thing--Minnn may turn killer. And now I shall retire--manipulating this organism is most fatiguing."
The talking-attendant stood blank-faced for a moment as the Ravian withdrew to some nook of his mentality. Then he blinked and peered around, discovered he was in Forge's office, and saluted.
"That's okay, John," said Chester. "Thanks. Take him back to his husk."
The attendant left and Chester picked up his visor, punching the button for Security Chief....
On Clinch Street, little Sally Odum was walking home from school. She turned down an alley for a shortcut, and there she saw the toy. It was a black, fringed globe, a little larger than a grapefruit. "Gee!" exclaimed Sally, and reached out and grabbed it.
The globe changed from black to gray, from shiny to dull, and from firm to flaccid. Sally felt a little tingle in her fingertips, a tiny tug in her mind. Looking thoughtful, she slipped the limp toy under her jacket. She trotted home, hid the thing at the bottom of her toy box, and promptly forgot about ever finding it.
Minnn, exhausted from the psionic strain of rolling his body through the thick earth air all the way from the port to the city, and then directing the feeling and movement of Sally, made one little adjustment in her memory, then turned off his awareness and rested. In the rich rush of mental currents he would soon be replenished. In the meantime he was safe....