ut his jaw and glowered at Dr. Moss as though it were all
_his_ fault. Then he grinned. "Oh, I know you're right, Doc. It's just
that this is the wrong _time_. I can't take two months out
now--there's too much to be done between now and the middle of next
month."

"Oh, yes. The Hearings. Why not turn it over to your staff? They know
what's going on."

"Nonsense. They know, but not like I know. After the Hearings,
fine--I'll come along like a lamb. But now--"

Dr. Moss reddened, slammed his fist down on the desk. "Dammit, man,
are you blind and deaf? Or just plain stupid? Didn't you hear me a
moment ago? _You may not live through the Hearings._ You could _go_,
just like that, any minute. But this is 2134 A.D., not the middle
ages. It would be so utterly, hopelessly pointless to let that
happen--"

Fowler champed his cigar and scowled. "After it was done I'd have to
Free-Agent for a year, wouldn't I?" It was an accusation.

"You _should_. But that's a formality. If you want to go back to what
you were doing the day you came from the Center--"

"Yes, _if_! But supposing I didn't? Supposing I was all changed?"

The young doctor looked at the old man shrewdly. Dan Fowler was 56
years old--and he looked forty. It seemed incredible even to Moss that
the man could have done what he had done, and look almost as young and
fighting-mad now as he had when he started. Clever old goat, too--but
Dan Fowler's last remark opened the hidden door wide. Moss smiled to
himself. "You're afraid of it, aren't you, Senator?"

"Of rejuvenation? Nonsense."

"But you are. You aren't the only one--it's a pretty frightening
thing. Cash in the old model, take out a new one, just like a jet
racer or a worn out talk-writer. Only it isn't machinery, it's your
body, and your life." Dr. Moss grinned. "It scares a man.
_Rejuvenation_ isn't the right word, of course. Aside from the
neurones, they take away every cell in your body, one way or another,
and give you new ones. A hundred and fifty years ago Cancelmo and
Klein did it on a dog, and called it _sub-total prosthesis_. A crude
job--I've seen their papers and films. Vat-grown hearts and kidneys,
revitalized vascular material, building up new organ systems like a
patchwork quilt, coaxing new tissues to grow to replace old ones--but
they got a living dog out of it, and that dog lived to the ripe old
age of 37 years before he died."

* * * * *

Moss pushed bac