"That's what I thought," Earl said with reckless boldness. "I'm beginning to understand why I made my decision to suppress the identity of the nerve substance. You did that. The things I've seen. You're just like dictators of our time. You think you're so right that everyone will naturally agree with you. I don't. I think it's more humane to let people come into the world as they will and have wars that destroy them, than to decide just how many are to be born. You need a new man in the garbage disposal plant in twenty years? Press a button and he will be born in a few months. Going to have less to do in some factory in twenty years? Keep the zombies from being born. Less trouble than killing them off later to save on the food bill."
"I was afraid you might feel that way," the Cyberene said. "I have the answer to it. Nadine Holmes. Make an accurate report tomorrow on the tests. In return I will leave her in your time—even plant directives so that she will always be a loving and devoted wife to you."
"I would prefer her as she is, naturally."
"Today her every outward manifestation was under my direct mental control. Don't you see, Earl Frye? Just before you followed her into my neatly laid trap to get you here, you watched her come up the hill, and adored every line of her, every mannerism, every play of expression. With one small corner of my mind I can anticipate your wishes and fulfill them in her—"
"It wouldn't be her," Earl said shaking his head. "And even if it were, at the cost of billions of unborn generations? No."
"But you will do as I wish whether you wish to or not. Why not obey me freely and get this reward, rather than nothing?
"I can control you." The voice ended triumphantly.
"No!" It was a shuddering protest from Earl's lips, forcing itself out against his wishes.
The throbbing ache at the base of his brain increased abruptly, slowly, to measurable beats.
"I can control your body, your conscious mind, shoving you into the back recesses of thought. And when you try to come out, I can punish you—like I'm doing now."