Miles and Pat went into the chamber first, with the expected result—human skeletons and shadowy organs showing up on the screen. Norden stared in fascination, while fear built up tensions inside him.
Armsworth passed in and found his position, with a face that was somehow both taut and frozen. The guards took a look at the screen and waved him on. He half staggered to the exit, his features distorted with an emotion that was unreadable.
Norden tried to fight down his own panic. Surely it would be madness to doubt the outcome. But a doubt began to throb in his mind. He could remember so little. He'd thought the Aliens had never found him. But if they had actually captured him, tampered with his mind, and turned him back again, would he know it? Suppose he was an Alien—one given a spurious, hypnotic belief he was Norden until the right signal to become himself again....
It was ridiculous, absurd! But the speculations ran on in his tormented mind. He didn't belong here. Men apparently took it for granted that a confessed spy could keep his life—and Norden took it equally for granted that death was the only answer. He didn't think like the rest of them. There had been that week on the asteroid. His memories were spotty....
"Dr. William Norden!" the speaker announced.
He shuddered convulsively. Then he caught himself, and forced his reluctant legs to move. The door shut behind him, and ahead lay the white square on which he was to stand. He approached the spot automatically, bracing himself to face straight ahead toward the fluoroscopic screen.
Now! It was almost a physical voice in his head. And his mind seemed to shift, to shout something down. Not yet! Look!
"Okay, Dr. Norden," the speaker said. His eyes flicked to the screen where a human skeleton showed dimly.
Crazy, he told himself. Hagridden with fears no sane human mind could have endured and retained its sanity. No wonder the psychologists had been uncertain about him. Unbalanced—but human!
Pat smiled weakly at him as he entered the room beyond, to join the ranks of the elect. Then they watched as their group passed successfully, to give place to a number of rocket men from the freight gang.