"And he already has you scared! I begin to suspect I haven't even time to argue with you!"
"I'll get you a car and driver as soon as you've seen the President. It's only a little thing——"
Calhoun growled and moved toward the exit from the laboratory. Past the sentries. Out to the open air. Here was the wide clear space which once had been a park for the city and the site of the government building of Tallien Three. A little distance away, children played gaily. But there were women who watched them with deep anxiety. This particular space contained all the people considered certainly free of the para syndrome. Tall building surrounded the area which once had been tranquil and open to all the citizens of the planet. But now those buildings were converted into walls to shut out all but the chosen—and the chosen were no better off for having been someone's choice.
"The capital building's over yonder," said the Minister, at once urgently and affrightedly and persuasively. "It's only a very short walk! Just yonder!"
"I still," said Calhoun, "don't want to go there." He showed the Minister for Health the blaster he'd aimed at Dr. Lett only minutes ago. "This is a blaster," he said gently. "It's adjusted for low power so that it doesn't necessarily burn or kill. It's the adjustment used by police in case of riot. With luck, it only stuns. I used it on Dr. Lett," he added unemotionally. "He's a para. Did you know? The vaccine he's been giving to certain high officials to protect them against becoming para—it satisfies the monstrous appetite of para without requiring them to eat scavengers. But it also produces that appetite. In fact, it's one of the ways by which paras are made."
The Minister for Health stared at Calhoun. His face went literally gray. He tried to speak, and could not.
Calhoun added again, as unemotionally as before:
"I left Dr. Lett unconscious in his laboratory, knocked out by a low-power blaster bolt. He knows he's a para. The President is a para, but with a supply of 'vaccine' he can deny it to himself. By the look on your face you've just found out you can't deny it to yourself any longer. You're a para, too."
The Minister for Health made an inarticulate sound. He literally wrung his hands.
"So," said Calhoun, "I want to get back to my ship and see what I can do with the 'vaccine' I took from Dr. Lett. Do you help me, or don't you?"