rs actually
existed. He began to plan his own escape to a bachelor hideout. He
would have no opportunity, no freedom of any sort, until he married.
Every boy was rigidly isolated in his confinement cubicle, under the
watchful eye of his mother's spy-cameras, until he was bought in his
first marriage.

Then, as he thought more about it, George realized there was a better
way for him to use his immunity. He couldn't be sure of finding a
bachelor hideout before the Morals Squad tracked him down. But George
could force his bride to tell him where the compound was made, since
he was not an addict and she could not use the compound to enslave
him. Once he knew the location of the factory, he would destroy it.
How, he wasn't sure; he didn't plan that far ahead. If the supply of
the drug could be interrupted, many hundreds of men might be goaded
into making a break for the hills.

* * * * *

The duty bell rang. George snapped to attention on the edge of his
bunk. He saw his mother waving from the back door of her house.

"I'll be down right away, Mummy."

His mother was waiting for him in the pantry. Under the glaring
overhead light he stopped for her last minute inspection. She used a
pocket-stick to touch up a spot on his chest where the oil gleam had
faded a little. And she gave him a glass of the compound to drink.

"Jenny really wants to marry you, George," she confided. "I know the
symptoms; half our battle's won for us. And my former husband won't be
around to worry us with his aches and pains. I made the trade this
afternoon."

He followed her into the dining room where the cocktails were being
served. Aside from the Harpers, George's mother had rented two
handsome, muscular escorts for his sisters. In the confusion, George
saw Jenny Harper's mother stealthily lace his water glass with a dose
of the compound. He suppressed a grin. Apparently she was anxious to
complete the deal, too.

George found it almost impossible to hold back hilarious laughter when
Jenny herself shyly pressed a capsule of the compound into his hand
and asked him to use it. Three full-size slugs of the drug! George
wondered what would have happened if he hadn't been immune.
Fortunately, he knew how to act the lusty, eager, drooling male which
each of the women expected.

The negotiations moved along without a hitch. George's mother held out
for twenty-eight thousand shares, and got it. The only problem lef