For a moment, no one spoke.
Harker stood some five feet from the operating-table, looking away from the creature under the machine, thinking, These people are like small boys with a new shiny toy. I should never have trusted them alone. I should never have gotten involved in this.
"What do we do now?" Lurie asked. The gangling biologist was nearing a state of hysteria. Sweat-drops beaded his forehead. "The man's mind is gone."
"Permanently?" Harker asked. "There's no way of restoring it?"
Raymond shook his head. "None. The EEG indicates permanent damage to the brain."
Harker took a deep breath. "In that case, there's nothing for us to do but kill him again and dispose of the body."
The suggestion seemed to shock them. Barchet reacted first: "But that's murder!"
"Exactly. And what did you think you were committing the first time you killed Thurman?" There was no answer, so he went on. "According to the present law of the land, you were all guilty of murder the moment you put the chloroform-mask over Thurman's face. The law needs fixing now, but that's irrelevant. You made yourselves subject to the death penalty when you abducted him, incidentally."
"How about you?" Barchet snapped. "You seem to be counting yourself out."
Harker resisted the impulse to lash out at the little man who had caused so much trouble. "As a matter of fact, technically I'm innocent," he said. "The kidnapping and murder both were carried out without my knowledge or consent. But there isn't a court in the world that would believe me, so I guess I'm in this boat with you. At the moment we all stand guilty of kidnapping and first-degree murder. I'm simply suggesting we get rid of the evidence and proceed as if nothing had happened. Either that or call the police right now."