Dr. Spindem opened his mouth tentatively for the first time. His lips moved as if he were having difficulty in speaking. He said finally, “I’ve always fancied myself something of a musical composer. Do you suppose there would be any chance —?”
When the others had gone, Montgomery remained alone with Nagle. They went back to the director’s office.
“I hope you honestly have no regrets that we chose to use you for a guinea pig,” said Nagle. “Everything began moving in on us much faster than we had anticipated, your R&D, the FBI —”
Montgomery shook his head. “I have no regrets. All I ask is that I be allowed to finish now, on the same basis as the others.”
“You don’t believe you have finished? How far do you think there is to go?”
“I suppose that’s the routine you give everybody,” said Montgomery. “At least, I hope you’re not trying to brush me off. You told me I could look in the Mirror and ask myself who I am and what I’m doing. I did that.”
“We are not brushing you off,” said Nagle with deep sincerity. “A man stays as long as he likes. He finishes with the Mirror only when he is able to see nothing new in it.”
“I got just a glimpse of an answer to the question of who and what I am. I’m a human being — Humanity.”
Nagle nodded slowly without speaking.
“It’s in me — all of it,” Montgomery said. “There’s something in me that has been alive since the first spot of slime was thrown up in the seas and energized by a photon to become a living thing — something that has not known death between that moment and now. And all its wisdom and learning is hidden in me — in you, and all of us. I want it.”