Telzey said, “The gate controls are probably inside the cars they use when they go out there.”
“Uh-huh—and the car Linden was in was armored.” Gaziel had turned to study the surrounding stretches of the estate from their vantage point. “Look over there!” she said.
Telzey looked. “Gardening squad,” she said after a moment. “Maybe we can find out something from them.”
3
* * *
A flotilla of sixteen flat machines was gliding about purposefully a few inches above the lawns among the trees. An operator sat on each, manipulating controls. Two men on foot spoke now and then into communicators, evidently directing the work.
Gaziel nodded. “Watch that one!”
They’d approached with some caution, keeping behind trees for the most part, and hadn’t yet been observed. But now one of the machines was coming in directly from the side toward the tree behind which they stood. The operator should be able to see them, but he was paying them no attention.
They studied him in uneasy speculation. There was nothing wrong about his motions; it was his expression. The eyes shifted around, but everything else seemed limply dead. The jaw hung half open; the lips drooped; the cheeks sagged. The machine came up almost to the tree, turned at a right angle, started off on another course.
Telzey said softly, “The other operators seem to be in about the same condition—whatever it is. But the supervisors look all right. Let’s see if they’ll talk.”
They stepped out from behind the tree, started toward the closer of the two men on foot. He caught sight of them, whistled to draw his companion’s attention.
“Well,” he said, grinning amiably as they came up. “Dr. Ti’s new guests, aren’t you?” His gaze shifted between them. “And, uh, twin. Which is the human one?”
The other man, a big broad-shouldered fellow, joined them. Telzey shrugged. “We don’t know. They wouldn’t say.”
The men stared. “Can’t you tell?” the big one demanded.
“No,” said Gaziel. “We both feel we’re human.” She added, “From what Dr. Ti told us, you mightn’t be real people either and you wouldn’t know it.”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
“Not likely!” the big man said. “A wirehead doesn’t have a bank account.”
“You do? Outside?” Gaziel said.
“Uh-huh. A healthy one. My name’s Remiol, by the way. The little runt’s Eshan.”
“We’re Telzey and Gaziel,” said Telzey. “And maybe you could make those bank accounts a lot healthier.”
They looked at her, then shook their heads decidedly.
“We’re not helping you get away, if that’s what you mean,” Remiol said. Eshan added, “There’d be no way of doing it if we wanted to. You kids just forget about that and settle down! This isn’t a bad place if you keep out of trouble.”
“You wouldn’t have to help us get away exactly,” Telzey said. “How often do you go to the mainland?”
There was a sudden momentary vagueness in their expressions which made her skin prickle.
“Well,” Remiol said, frowning and speaking slowly as if he had some difficulty finding the words, “about as often as we feel like it, I’d say. I . . .” He hesitated, gave Eshan a puzzled look.
“You could take out a message,” Gaziel said, watching him.
“Forget it!” said Eshan, who seemed unaware of anything unusual in Remiol’s behavior. “We work for Dr. Ti. The pay’s great and the life’s easy. We aren’t going to spoil that setup!”
“All right,” Telzey said after a moment. “If you don’t want to help us, maybe you won’t mind telling us what the setup is.”
“Wouldn’t mind at all!” said Remiol, appearing to return abruptly to normal. He gave Telzey a friendly grin. “If Dr. Ti didn’t want us to talk to you, we’d have been told. He’s a good boss—you know where you are with him. Eshan, give the wireheads a food break and let’s sit down with the girls.”
They sat down in the grass together. Gaziel indicated the machine operators with a hand motion. “You call them wireheads. They aren’t humans but a sort of Martri work robot?”
“Not work robots,” Remiol said. “Dr. Ti doesn’t bother with those. These are regular puppets—maybe defectives, or some experiment, or just drama puppets who’ve played a few roles too many. When they get like this, they don’t last more’n a year—then back they go to the stuff they grow them from. Meanwhile they’re still plenty good for this kind of work.”
“Might be a few real humans among them,” Eshan said reflectively, looking over at the operators. “After a while, you don’t think about it much—they’re all programmed anyway.”
“How do real humans get to be in that kind of shape?” Gaziel said.
The men shrugged. “Some experiment again,” said Remiol. “A lot of important research going on in the big building here.”
Telzey said, “How did you know one of us was a wirehead?”
“One of the lab workers told us,” said Eshan. “She said Dr. Ti was mighty happy with the results. Some of his other twinning projects hadn’t turned out so well.”
Remiol winked at Telzey. “This one turned out perfect!”
She smiled. “You ever been on the other side of the wall?”
They had. Evidently, it was as unhealthy as Ti had indicated to go there unless one was in one of the small fleet of armored and armed vehicles designed for the purpose. The only really safe place on the forest side was a small control fort on the slope of the mountain, and that came under occasional attack. Eshan and Remiol described some of the Martri creations they’d seen.
“Why does Dr. Ti keep them around?” Gaziel asked.
“Uses them sometimes in the Martridramas he puts on here,” said Remiol.
“And wait till you’ve seen one of those!” said Eshan. “That’s real excitement! You don’t see shows like that anywhere else.”
“Otherwise,” Remiol said, speaking of the forest puppets, “I guess it’s research again. I worried at first about one of them coming over the wall. But it’s never happened.”
* * *
“Well, well!” said Ti. “Having a friendly gossip?”
He’d come floating out of a grove of trees on a hoverdisk and stopped a few feet away, holding the guide rail in his large hands.
“Hope you don’t mind, Doctor,” Remiol said. He and Eshan had got to their feet as Ti approached.
Ti smiled. “Mind? Not in the least. I’m greatly pleased that the new members of our little community have begun to make acquaintances so quickly. However, now we’ll all be getting back to work, eh? Telzey and Gaziel, you can stand up here with me and we’ll return to the house together.”
They stepped up on the disk beside him, and it swung gently around and floated away, while the gardening machines lifted from the ground and began to reform into their interrupted work patterns.
“Fine fellows, those two!” said Ti, beaming down at Gaziel and Telzey. “They don’t believe in overexerting themselves, of course. But then that isn’t necessary here, and I prefer a relaxed and agreeable atmosphere around me.”
Telzey said, “I understand it’s sometimes rather exciting, too.”
Ti chuckled. “That provides the counterpoint—the mental and emotional stimulus of the Martridrama! I need both. I’m always at my best here on the island! A room has been prepared for you two. You’ll be shown there, and I’ll come then shortly to introduce you to some of the most interesting sections of our establishment.”
The groundcar Linden had been operating stood near the side door Telzey and Gaziel had used when they left the building. The hoverdisk went gliding past it to the door which opened as they approached, and into the building. In the hall beyond, it settled to the floor. They stepped down from it.
“Why, Challis!” said Ti heartily, gazing past Telzey. “What a pleasant surprise to see you back!”
Telzey and Gaziel looked around. A pale slender woman with light blue hair was coming across the hall toward them.
“This is my dear wife,” Ti told them. He was smiling, but it seemed to Telzey that his face had lost some of its ruddy color. “She’s been absent from the island for some time. I didn’t know she was returning . . .” He turned to Challis as she came up. “These are two very promising recruits, Challis. You’ll be interested in hearing about my plans for them.”
Challis looked over at them with an expression which was neither friendly nor unfriendly. It might have been speculative. She had pale gray eyes and delicately beautiful features. She nodded slightly; and something stirred eerily in Telzey’s mind.
Ti said, “I’ll send someone to show you two to your room.” He took Challis by the arm. “Come, my dear! I must hear what you’ve been doing.”
He went off toward a door leading from the hall, Challis moving with supple ease beside him. As the door closed on the pair, Telzey glanced at Gaziel.