t another woman on my trail
because I was already emotionally involved with the missing
Catherine--and so they decided to use me in another way. I was shown
enough to keep me busy, I was more or less urged to go track down the
Highways in Hiding for the Medical Center. After all, as soon as I'd
made the initial discovery, Phelps and his outfit shouldn't have needed
any more help.#

"A bit more thinking, Steve. You've come up with that answer before."

#Sure. Phelps wanted me to take my tale to the Government. About this
secret Highway outfit. But if neither side can afford to have the secret
come out, how come--?# I pondered this for a long time and admitted that
it made no sense to me. Finally Farrow shook her head and said,

"Steve, I've got to prompt you now and then. But remember that I'm
trying to make you think it out yourself. Now consider: You are running
an organization that must be kept secret. Then someone learns the secret
and starts heading for the Authorities. What is your next move?"

"Okay," I replied. "So I'm stupid. Naturally, I pull in my horns, hide
my signs, and make like nothing was going on."

"So stopping the advance of your organization, which is all that Phelps
really can expect."

I thought some more. #And the fact that I was carrying a story that
would get me popped into the nearest hatch for the incipient paranoid
made it all right?#

She nodded.

"And now?" she asked me.

"And now I'm living proof of my story. Is that right?"

"Right. And Steve, do not forget for one moment that the only reason
that you're still alive is because you are valuable to both sides alive.
Dead, you're only good for a small quantity of Mekstrom Inoculation."

"Don't follow," I grunted. "As you say, I'm no medical person."

"Alive, your hair grows and must be cut. You shave and trim off beard.
Your fingernails are pared. Now and then you lose a small bit of hide or
a few milliliters of blood. These are things that, when injected under
the skin of a normal human, makes them Mekstrom. Dead, your ground up
body would not provide much substance."

"Pleasant prospect," I growled. "So what do I do to avert this future?"

"Steve, I don't know. I've done what I can for you. I've effected the
cure and I've done it in safety; you're still Steve Cornell."

XXII

"Look," I blurted with a sudden rush of brain to the head, "If I'm so
all-fired important to both sides, how come you managed to sequester