"The Romans didn't crave dormice," said Calhoun. "They could eat them or leave them alone."
The man behind the thick glass glared at the two in the outer room. He hated them intolerably. He cried out at them. Blood vessels in his temples throbbed with his hatred. He cursed them.
"I point out one thing more," said Dr. Lett. "I would like to have the co-operation of the Interstellar Medical Service. I am a citizen of this planet and not without influence. But I would like to have my work approved by the Med Service. I submit that in some areas on ancient Earth, iodine was put into the public water-supply systems to prevent goiters and cretinism. Fluorine was put into drinking water to prevent caries. On Tralee the public water supply has traces of zinc and cobalt added. These are necessary trace elements. Why should you not concede that here there are trace elements or trace compounds needed——"
"You want me to report that," said Calhoun, flatly. "I couldn't do it without explaining—a number of things. Paras are madmen, but they organize. A symptom of privation is violent yawning. This ... condition appeared only six months ago. This planet has been colonized for three hundred years. It could not be a naturally needed trace compound."
Dr. Lett shrugged, eloquently and contemptuously.
"Then you will not report what all this planet will certify," he said curtly. "My vaccine——"
"You would not call it a vaccine if you thought it supplied a deficiency—a special need of the people of Tallien. Could you give me a small quantity of your ... vaccine?"
"No," said Dr. Lett blandly. "I am afraid you are not willing to be co-operative. The little of my vaccine that is available is needed for high officials, who must be protected from the para condition at all costs. I am prepared to make it on a large scale, though, for the whole population. I will see, then, that you have as much of it as you need."
Calhoun seemed to reflect.
"No," he admitted, "I'm not ready to co-operate with you, Dr. Lett. I have a very uncomfortable suspicion. I suspect that you carry a small quantity of your vaccine with you all the time. That you cannot bear the idea of being without it if you should need it. I say that because it is a symptom of other ... similar conditions. Of other ... abnormal appetites."
Dr. Lett had been bland and grinning in mockery. But the amusement left his face abruptly.
"Now ... what do you mean by that?" he demanded.
Calhoun nodded his head toward the para behind the glass wall.
"That poor devil nearly yawned his head off before you gave him his diet of scavengers, Dr. Lett. Do you ever yawn like that ... so you make sure you've always your vaccine with you to stop it? Aren't you a para, Dr. Lett? In fact, aren't you the ... monstrous cause of ... paras?"
Murgatroyd cried "Chee! Chee! Chee!" in great agitation, because Dr. Lett had snatched up a dissecting scalpel and crouched to leap upon Calhoun. But Calhoun said:
"Easy, Murgatroyd! He won't do anything regrettable!"
He had a blaster in his hand, bearing directly upon the greatest and most skillful physician on Tallien Three. And Dr. Lett did not do anything regrettable. But his eyes burned with the fury of a madman.
III
Five minutes later, or possibly ten, Calhoun went out to where the Minister for Health paced miserably up and down the corridor outside the laboratory. The Minister looked white and sick, as if despite himself he'd been picturing the demonstration Lett would have given Calhoun. He did not meet Calhoun's eyes. He said uneasily:
"I'll take you to the Planetary President, now."
"No," said Calhoun. "I got some very promising information from Dr. Lett. I want to go back to my ship first."
"But the President is waiting to see you!" protested the Minister for Health. "There's something he wants to discuss!"
"I want," Calhoun observed, "to have something to discuss with him. There is intelligence back of this para business. I'd almost call it demoniac intelligence. I want to get back to my ship and check on what I got from Dr. Lett."
The Minister for Health hesitated, and then said urgently:
"But the President is extremely anxious——"
"Will you," asked Calhoun politely, "arrange for me to be taken back to my ship?"
The Minister for Health opened his mouth and closed it. Then he said apologetically—and it seemed to Calhoun—fearfully:
"Dr. Lett has been our only hope of conquering this ... this epidemic. The President and the Cabinet felt that they had to ... give him full authority. There was no other hope! We didn't know you'd come. So ... Dr. Lett wished you to see the President when you left him. It won't take long!"
Calhoun said grimly:
"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?"
The Minister for Health seemed to have shriveled inside his garments. He wrung his hands again. Then a ground car braked to a stop five yards away. Two uniformed men jumped out. The first of them jerked at his blaster in its holster on his hip.
"That's the tormal!" he snapped. "This's the man, all right!"
Calhoun pulled the trigger of his blaster three times. It whined instead of rasping, because of its low-power setting. The Minister for Health collapsed. Before he touched ground the nearer of the two uniformed men seemed to stumble with his blaster halfway drawn. The third man toppled.