"I doubt it."
"What if there was nobody on the other side for him to force into?"
"He would not last very long ... we would lose him. And that would go hard for you, Mr. Forge, because we do not want Minnn done away with, we want him captured."
"I don't need to be reminded," said Chester, mentally getting a two-handed hold on the always-be-polite-to-a-tourist rule. "And now let's smoke him out."
The director and a helper lingered unobtrusively near a firehose; the rest of the group strolled on down the hall. Minnn had rested and was alert again. Through his host-eyes he saw there were many patients milling about—there were so many ready refuges. It occurred to him that he had not particularly bedeviled his countryman, and he caused his host to pick up a vase and hurl it at the head of Monnn's talking-attendant.
Almost instantly a blast of chill water struck Minnn's host, knocking her sprawling. Minnn found her emotions most unpleasant. He took her mind fully, forcing her up from the floor, and a ram of water pounded her down again. Somebody was rounding up the other patients, pushing them out of his reach. People were yelling, running.
Somebody down the hall aimed a wide-nozzled gun at Minnn's host. There was also the blat of an explosion and something hit his host in the chest. "What poor weapons," thought Minnn, and then the thing exploded. A thick gas swaddled the host-patient, Minnn felt the body sagging. There was no time for him to weigh all factors for a really logical decision, and he made a snap-judgment to leave this body before it lost consciousness and sealed off his contact with his environment.
A form was stumbling past, and Minnn reached his host's hand up and touched it. In a flash he had entered. Almost instantaneously he realized that this time it was different. The nervous system was alive with wild, determined resistance.
His host was Chester Forge.
Chester reeled back from the gas-shrouded, drowsing inmate. The gas would stay near her, held by the biostatic charge in all its particles. He had to keep away from it; he needed all his consciousness for his battle.