Colonel's lady are sisters under the skin."

Where'd that come from? Something I learned in school, I guess--like the
snarks and boojums.

"He would answer to Hi! or to any loud cry,
Such as Fry me! or Fritter my wig!"

Who was that? The snark? No.

_Damn_ this memory of mine!

Or can I even call it mine when I can't even use it?

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also
I am known."

Another jack-in-the-box thought popping up from nowhere.

The only way I'll ever get all this stuff straightened out is to get more
information. And it doesn't look as though anyone is going to give it to
me on a platter. The Institute seems to be awfully chary about giving
information away. George even had to chase away old rub-and-pound, here
(That feels good!) before he would talk about the Nipe. Can't blame 'em
for that, I guess. There'd be hell to pay if the public ever found out
that the Nipe has been kept as a pet for six years.

How many people has he killed in that time? Twenty? Thirty? How much blood
does Colonel Mannheim have on his hands?

"Though they know not why,
Or for what they give,
Still, the few must die,
That the many may live."

I wonder whether I read all that stuff complete or just browsed through a
copy of Bartlett's Quotations. Fragments.

We've got to get organized here, brother. Colonel Mannheim's little puppet
is going to cut his strings and do a Pinocchio.

* * * * *

"O.K., Bart," the P.T. said, giving Stanton a final slap, "you're all set.
See you tomorrow."

"Right. Gimme my clothes."

Stanton dressed and took the elevator up to Yoritomo's office. This
section of the building was off-limits to the other patients in the
Institute, but Stanton, the star border, had free rein.

Not that it mattered, one way or another. There wasn't any way they could
have stopped him. Aside from the fact that he was physically capable of
going through or around almost any guards they wanted to put up, there was
also the little matter of gentle blackmail. When a man is genuinely
indispensable, he can work wonders by threatening to drop the whole
business.

He felt as though he had been slowly awakening from a long sleep. At
first, he had accepted as natural that he should obey orders and do as he
was told without question, as thought he had been drugged o