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than an ax "
MX KNOWS BESI 99
It took some twenty-eight hours, to rebuild Alien Morg into a fair specimen of
a sober human being again
Four o'clock of the following afternoon found him and Gait on Gait's airfoil
platform, fiving north out of the city to see some people
"How far is it7" asked Alien, fitting his lean body comfortably into one of
the soft chairs of the platform
"About forty miles," answered Gait, squinting at the horizon with the balance
wheel between his big hands Alien looked at him
"How come vou never told me about these people before7"
"Before," said Gait, "you may not have liked MX, and you may have disliked
people taking its deci-
sions for gospel but were you ready to do some-
thing aboutit7"
"No, I guess not," said Alien
"There vou are "
The platform tilted and slid off in a slightly new, more northwesterly
direction
"Who are they, anyway7 Can you tell me that now7"
asked Alien
"You know them It's Jasper Aneurme, his sister
Leta and someone else "
Alien frowned, his thin, rather good-looking face becoming even more intense
than usual He re-
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nger.txt membered the Aneunnes They had cropped up more than once at parties
with Gait, several years back
He had not seen them since Jasper was a silver-
haired, upright man of the sort that seems to become abruptly handsome in late
middle age Leta, who must be a good twenty years or more her brother's junior,
had not been unusually good-looking, but rather striking in her own way Alien
had been en-
gaged to some other girl not Connie at that time, but he remembered being
strangely and almost com-
100 Gordon R. Dickson pulsively attracted to Leta, on the few occasions of
their meetings. There was a sort of lonely, destined air about her.
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"How long," asked Alien, "have you belonged to this bunch?"
"Oh," said Gait. "Almost ten years."
"I've known you fifteen."
Gait nodded "But it wasn't just my secret."
"No," agreed Alien- "Still, ten years all the while you've been hacking away
as a trial lawyer, just like me at my contracts, and I never took you for a
revolutionary."
"I'm not," said Gait.
"Aren't you?" said Alien, and laughed a little bit-
terly. "Try to take MX from the people who've given up making up their own
minds, and see. The dope addict loves his drugs; the drinker loves his booze."
"Say instead," said Gait, "they can't do without them."
"Easy," said Gait, soothingly. "Easy. It's a big prob-
lem, but just a problem. That's all."
"Just a problem? How does that thing go?" de-
manded Alien. "Our fathers in their time sowed drag-
on's teeth ..."
". . . Our children know and suffer armed men," fin-
ished Gait.
They flew north and a little bit west past Scarbor-
ough. Tendale, and Cooper's City. They passed New
Berlin and veered west again toward a little suburb called Kingsdale. There
they came down on the park-
ing pad of a private living area.
The drapes were pulled back on the living room beside the pad and a tall young
woman with brown hair and a slim, intelligent face was waiting for them.
The whispering air current of the wall cooled Alien's face for a moment as he
stepped through the wall;
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MX KNOWS BLST 101
then he was face to face with Leta Aneurine once more.
"Leta," said Gait. "You remember Alien."
"Very well," she said. She gave him a slim, firm hand and Alien found himself
holding on to it for a short second with real thankfulness. After the desert
heat and sun of Connie, this was cool water.
"I remember too." he said.
"Then I'm flattered," she answered, and turned to
Gait. "Jasper and Frank are in the den."
"I'll go talk to them," said Gait. "You stay here with Leta, will you Alien?"
And he stalked oft, disap-
pearing through a wall of screen light in the back of the room.
"And what makes Gait bring you out at last to see us?" asked Leta, turning
back to Alien.
"Well . . ." He hesitated, but her perception was quick.
"Oh, I see," she said. "You're one of our sudden converts and I shouldn't ask.
Would you like a drink
even if it's just to balance politely in your hand?"
He smiled, and found his old liking for her coming back.
"Thanks," he said, and trailed her across the room to a dispenser cabinet.
"What'll it be, now?" She opened the cabinet. A
concealed rainbow of light played across the interior and a miniature,
three-dimensional representation of his host's liquor supply revolved slowly
for his in-
spection. Alien thought of the week just past with something like a shudder.
"Beer," he said, "light and cold."
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"And in a stein," she said. She pressed appropriate buttons and handed it to
him, taking a small glass of sherry for herself.
"Who's Frank?" he asked, She led the way back to some easy chairs across
102 Gordon R. Dickson the room. "Frank Campanelli. He's our technical expert."
"Technical expert?"
She smiled at him. "Jasper'11 tell you. And how's business in court these
days?"
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"You've got me confused with Gait. I just write contracts a sort of glorified
clerk." He gazed at her curiously. "You know, I never did know what you do."
"I write poetry. Don't laugh," she added gravely, "I make a great deal of
money at it. I do graded stories in poetic imagery for the school-age child.
How are contracts, then?"
"Fine."
"Then it's woman trouble."
He started. "How do you know?"
"Why, I was born an expert, being female. And received the normal twenty years
or so of postgradu-
ate instruction customary for girls." She bit her lip.
"Including the instincts and habit of poking my nose into what's probably none
of my business. I'm sorry."
"It's nothing." He shrugged. "We punched for a decision on getting married. MX
said no ... and she took it to heart."
Leta did not answer for a second. She seemed to be thinking, "You know," she
said, suddenly. "If I were Frank, or Jasper or Gait, even, I wouldn't trust
you."
He was both shocked and wounded. He stared at her in astonishment.
"Why not?" he challenged.
"You might change back, just as suddenly as you changed to." But she looked at
him almost appeal-
ingly as she said it, as if begging him not to blame her for a judgment she
couldn't help.
"What do you mean, suddenly?" he said. "Why, I've felt this way for years."
MX KNOWS BEST 103
"But you've never done anything about it until now."
"What's that got to do with it?"
She made a defensive, apologetic gesture with one hand. as if warding off a
blow.
"Well, perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps you're just not a leader."
"And you, I see," he said harshly, "are one of those women with a high 10 and
nothing else, who justify themselves by taking jabs at every man they come in
contact with."
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