e to do the job alone. In
addition to others, I need you. Not anyone like you--but you, and
you alone."

"You have precious little time left to convince me of all that,"
Brion told him, "so let me make the job easier for you. The work you
do, this planet, the imminent danger of the people there--these are
all facts that you can undoubtedly supply. I'll take a chance that
this whole thing is not a colossal bluff, and admit that given time,
you could verify them all. This brings the argument back to me
again. How can you possibly prove that I am the only person in the
galaxy who can help you?"

"I can prove it by your singular ability, the thing I came here to
find."

"Ability? I am different in no way from the other men on my planet."

"You're wrong," Ihjel said. "You are the embodied proof of
evolution. Rare individuals with specific talents occur constantly
in any species, man included. It has been two generations since an
empathetic was last born on Anvhar, and I have been watching
carefully most of that time."

"What in blazes is an empathetic--and how do you recognize it when
you have found it?" Brion chuckled, this talk was getting
preposterous.

"I can recognize one because I'm one myself--there is no other way.
As to how projective empathy works, you had a demonstration of that
a little earlier, when you felt those strange thoughts about Anvhar.
It will be a long time before you can master that, but receptive
empathy is your natural trait. This is mentally entering into the
feeling, or what could be called the spirit of another person.
Empathy is not thought perception; it might better be described
as the sensing of someone else's emotional makeup, feelings and
attitudes. You can't lie to a trained empathetic, because he can
sense the real attitude behind the verbal lies. Even your
undeveloped talent has proved immensely useful in the Twenties.
You can outguess your opponent because you know his movements
even as his body tenses to make them. You accept this without
ever questioning it."

"How do you know?" This was Brion's understood, but never voiced secret.

Ihjel smiled. "Just guessing. But I won the Twenties too, remember,
also without knowing a thing about empathy at the time. On top of
our normal training, it's a wonderful trait to have. Which brings me
to the proof we mentioned a minute ago. When you said you would be
convinced if I could prove you were the only person who could help
me. I _b