“Go ahead.”
“You go to hell.”
I started in on the eggs and bacon. A minute or two passed.
“My name is Sibla,” the donkey said.
I decided that I did not really care and went on eating.
“I am a friend of Ragma-and Charv.”
“I see,” I said, “and they sent you to spy on me, to poke around in my mind.”
“That is not so. I was assigned the job of protecting you until you were fit to receive a message and act on it.”
“How were you to protect me?”
“By keeping you inconspicuous-“
“With a donkey following me around? Who briefed you, anyway?”
“I am aware of my prominence in this guise. I was about to explain that my task was to provide for your mental silence. As a telepath, I am capable of dampening your thought noises. It has not really been necessary, however, in that alcohol deadens them considerably. Still, I am here to shield you against premature betrayal of your position to another telepath.”
“What other telepath?”
“To be more honest than may be necessary, I do not know. It was decided at some level other than my own that there might be a telepath involved in this case. I was sent here both to keep you silent and to block any unfriendly telepath trying to reach you. Also, I was to attempt to determine the identity and whereabouts of that individual.”
“Well? What happened?”
“Nothing. You were drunk and no one tried to reach you.”
“So the guess was wrong.”
“Possibly. Possibly not.”
I resumed eating. Between mouthfuls, I asked, “What is your level or rank, or whatever? The same as Charv’s and Ragma’s? Or are you higher up?”
“Neither,” the donkey replied. “I am in budget analysis and cost accounting. I was drafted as the only available telepath capable of assuming this role.”
“Are you under any restrictions as to what you can tell me?”
“I was told to exercise my judgment and common sense.”
“Strange. Nothing else about this business seems particularly rational. They must not have had time to brief you fully.”
“True. There was quite a rush about it. I had to allow for travel time and the substitution.”
“What substitution?”
“The real donkey is tied up out back.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I am reading your thoughts, and I am not about to give you any answers Ragma refused you.”
“Okay. If your common sense and good judgment tell you to withhold information that may be vital to my safety, then by all means be sensible.” I swallowed the final forkful. “What’s that message you mentioned?”
The donkey looked away.
“You had expressed some willingness to cooperate in the investigation, had you not?”
“I had-earlier,” I said.
“You would not agree to go offworld to be examined by a telepathic analyst, however.”
“That is correct.”
“We were wondering whether you might be willing to allow me to attempt it-here, now.”
I took a sip of coffee.
“Have you had much training along these lines?”
“Just about every telepath knows something of the theory involved, and of course I possess a lifetime of experience with telepathy-“
“You are a cost accountant,” I said. “Don’t try to impress the natives.”
“All right. I am not trained for it. I think I can do it, though. So do the others, or I would not have been approached to try.”
“Who are the others?”
“Well … Oh hell! Charv and Ragma.”
“I’ve a feeling they are not proceeding according to the manual in this. Correct?”
“Field agents in their line of work possess a great deal of discretionary authority. They have to.”
I sighed and lit a cigarette.
“How old is the organization which employs you?” I said. When I detected hesitation, I added, “Surely there is no harm in telling me that.”
“I guess not. Several thousand-years, by your measure.”
“I see. In other words, it is one of the biggest, oldest bureacracies around.”
“I see in your mind what you are getting at, but-“
“Let me shape it anyway. As a student of business administration, I know that there is a law of evolution for organizations as stringent and inevitable as anything in life. The longer one exists, the more it grinds out restrictions that slow its own functions. It reaches entropy in a state of total narcissism. Only the people sufficiently far out in the field get anything done, and every time they do they are breaking half a dozen rules in the process.”