Stan looked at Mr. Ainsworth coldly.
"What's in it for me?"
CHAPTER IV
"Half the world," Mr. Ainsworth said slowly. "One half of your whole, wide world!"
Stan stared at him coldly for a full minute, then started to laugh—laughter that ripped out of him like waves and washed against the sides of the room.
Sick laughter, because he knew the price he was going to have to pay for it.
He sobered. There was a time, he thought, when every human being had to stand up and be counted as a brave man or a coward. This was his.
"And you thought I would take it! You thought I would sell out the whole human race!" His face was seamed with hate and he thumped his chest proudly, suddenly not caring what happened to himself. His voice was hoarse. "I'm one of the apes, remember? They're my people and it's my planet...."
Mr. Ainsworth's face looked like it was carved from a block of ice.