"No," he admitted, "I'm not ready to co-operate with you, Dr. Lett. I have a very uncomfortable suspicion. I suspect that you carry a small quantity of your vaccine with you all the time. That you cannot bear the idea of being without it if you should need it. I say that because it is a symptom of other ... similar conditions. Of other ... abnormal appetites."
Dr. Lett had been bland and grinning in mockery. But the amusement left his face abruptly.
"Now ... what do you mean by that?" he demanded.
Calhoun nodded his head toward the para behind the glass wall.
"That poor devil nearly yawned his head off before you gave him his diet of scavengers, Dr. Lett. Do you ever yawn like that ... so you make sure you've always your vaccine with you to stop it? Aren't you a para, Dr. Lett? In fact, aren't you the ... monstrous cause of ... paras?"
Murgatroyd cried "Chee! Chee! Chee!" in great agitation, because Dr. Lett had snatched up a dissecting scalpel and crouched to leap upon Calhoun. But Calhoun said:
"Easy, Murgatroyd! He won't do anything regrettable!"
He had a blaster in his hand, bearing directly upon the greatest and most skillful physician on Tallien Three. And Dr. Lett did not do anything regrettable. But his eyes burned with the fury of a madman.
III
Five minutes later, or possibly ten, Calhoun went out to where the Minister for Health paced miserably up and down the corridor outside the laboratory. The Minister looked white and sick, as if despite himself he'd been picturing the demonstration Lett would have given Calhoun. He did not meet Calhoun's eyes. He said uneasily: