Elasa smiled. “I don’t eat or poop.”
“Only these maggots are big and smart. They have spaceships galore. They can read minds. They can see the future, through their captives.”
“Technology, telepathy, precognition,” Elasa said. “So they can anticipate the sheep as much as the sheep anticipate them. Stalemate, except that the sheep don’t have technology.”
“But we do,” Yon said.
“Not like theirs,” Adela said. “They’re—they’re galactic. By themselves, physically, they’re largely legless grubs. But their minds—they can take over the minds of other creatures, make them do their bidding. That’s how they got the spaceships.”
“They can take over minds,” Elasa repeated thoughtfully. “That’s worse than projective telepathy. They’ve got us outgunned, even with Venus.”
“They take over the minds of key players, like kings or prime ministers, and make them serve Maggot interests,” Adela continued. “They set their planets up for the slaughter. Literally. Earth will become one giant slaughterhouse, to feed all our bodies to the maggots. By the time they go there’ll be nothing left but a layer of Maggot poop. No life beyond bacterial poop eaters.” She took a pained breath. “And we can’t stop them. They’ve got overwhelming power, apart from their ability to anticipate and counter any defensive moves we might make. They’re experienced planet harvesters. They know what they’re doing.”
“Overconfidence might be their undoing,” Yon said.
“It’s justified confidence. We can’t defeat them.”
“How can you be so sure of that? Maybe we just need to find the right strategy.”
“Bunky,” Adela said.
The Lamb walked up to stand beside Yon.
“Put your hand on his back. You need the full effect of his telepathy.”
Yon put his hand on Bunky’s back. Then he stepped back as if struck. “I got it,” he said, shaken. “Earth can not defeat the Maggots.”
Again Elasa wished she could have full mental contact. Obviously the vision that Adela and the Companions had shared brooked no doubt. That showed, again, why the sheep had not been able to select a path. There was none.
“Still, there has to be a way,” Yon said. “Maybe we can’t beat them physically, but that’s not the only game in town. What about mentally?”
“No,” Adela said, and Bunky nodded.
Yon walked around the bench, pondering aloud. “Sometimes a person comes up against a superior enemy force, but he can survive if he plays his cards right. Some bugs are easy prey, but they don’t get eaten because they stink. That’s how they do it: they taste bad. So nobody bothers to eat them.”
“We are standard meat,” Adela said. “Similar to what’s on every other inhabitable planet in the galaxy. They know already from their precog that we’re edible. We can’t fool them about that.”
“Some bugs have spines,” Yon said doggedly. “They’re edible, but too hard to eat, so they get left alone.”
“The Maggots are good at cutting off spines,” Adela said.
“Maybe if we could convince them that we’re more trouble than we’re worth,” Elasa said. “So they wouldn’t bother with us.”
Bunky bleated yes.
Surprised, Elasa looked at him. “You mean I have a viable answer?”
“I think you do,” Yon said. “Lots of easy marks get left alone because they’re just too awkward to handle. Like the tuberculosis carrier: nobody messes with him, because they don’t want to risk getting it.”
“The Maggots don’t fear disease,” Adela said glumly.
“Maybe not disease,” Yon said. “But something else. It’s the principle that counts. The Lamb says there’s a path. That’s all we need to know right now. We have how long to figure it out?”
Adela touched Bunky. “Five months.”
“We’ll work on it,” Yon said confidently. “At least now we know there is a way. That’s more than we’ve had before.”
“A lot more,” Elasa agreed, relieved. “And it seems that it’s up to you Awares to find it. Without telling me or anyone else who isn’t an Aware.”
“We’re on our way,” Yon agreed. “We’ll let the Vulture or Python know when we need you.”
“Do that,” Elasa said. Then she and Bunky returned to the car. She felt elated, though she knew they had merely verified that the situation wasn’t hopeless, not that they would prevail. Certainly they had accomplished a lot this day.
Chapter 4:
Secret Agent
There was continuing contact that Elasa stayed clear of. She let Bunky go with Vulture and Python to meet the Awares, knowing that the three animals could handle any likely situation they would encounter. Bunky and the Awares were zeroing in on whatever the path to salvation was, and Elasa needed not to know it. Nobody should know it, lest the Maggots read it in their minds and nullify it. Meanwhile she was happy loving Banner and Bela, being a family woman. Saving the world was necessary, but all she had ever wanted was to be a woman.
Yet something significant was brewing that was bound to take her in. It might not be pretty. She picked this up from the animals. Bunky did not understand it, but she did: sexuality. She was a fembot, and her talent might have to be used. She had to warn her husband before things got dicey. “Banner, you know I learned something on Jones.”
“And tamed a vampire plant,” he agreed.
“That is only part of it. There is an enormous threat to Earth itself, but I can’t even talk about it without putting others in danger, including you.”
“If you tell me, you’d have to kill me,” he said, amused.
“Something like that. I can say only that very serious business is afoot that may require something unusual of me. I am asking you to trust me.”
“Elasa, you don’t even need to ask! I love you.”
“I might have to be with other men. No, not to leave you! I’ll always love you. But I might have to seduce others.”
He gazed at her, absorbing the import. “The way you did when we needed money to hitchhike.”
“Yes. Only this would not be for money.”
“Elasa, I do trust you. You do what you have to, and I won’t hold it against you. I know you love me as I love you.”
“Oh, yes!” she agreed, and swept him into her arms and on into bed.
Two weeks later Elasa got the word: the Awares had information for her. She went quietly to the garden with Bunky, and there were Vulture and Python—and Adela, whom they had led in. It was the most private convenient meeting place.
“There are key personnel the Maggots will target,” Adela said. “They will take them over and use them to institute the processes that will convert Earth to a slaughterhouse. We will need to stop those personnel, and not by assassination, because they would simply be replaced.”
“If they are here, the Maggots will take them,” Elasa said.
“There is another way. But not yet. We must get close enough to them to read an essential part of their brain coding so that the Plant will be able to change it slightly, with her projective telepathy. This is where we need you.”
“Of course I want to do the necessary,” Elasa said. “But I can’t afford to be obvious.”
“Exactly. You will need to have an affair with the American Secretary of Defense.”
“What?” This was shock rather than incomprehension.
“You need to get close to him, and stay close to him, because he will lead you to several of the other targets. We need to have them all primed by the time the Plant arrives, because then we shall have to act immediately. The salvation of our world depends on it.”
“How could I get close to him, let alone have an affair with him?”
“He will need a personal secretary. You will be that, in the form of his ideal figure of a woman. The rest will follow.”
“This is too complicated for me to handle,” Elasa said. “I would be thoroughly vetted before I ever got near such an impo
rtant figure, and they’d never trust him with a robot.”
“That is why I will go with you,” Adela said. “He must not know you are a robot. This is vital.”
Elasa worked it out. “Because anything he knows, the Maggots will know when they take him over. If he knows my nature, they will realize that this is a devious connection, and they will use me to track down the Awares. Then you won’t be able to stop them.”
“That’s it. We have to catch them by complete surprise, or we are lost. The path we have found is not guaranteed; it is merely the one most likely to succeed. Bunky is unable to precog the outcome. But any other path is doom.”
Elasa sighed. “My husband will not be pleased.”
“Because he thought your fembot days were behind you?”
“Actually he understands that aspect. But he will have to take care of Bela while I’m away. He doesn’t mind, but Bela can get fussy without me.”
“Tell him,” Adela said. “Because tonight you must be with Pauling Hudson.”
“Tonight!”
“You have just time to get to the Temp Agency. Timing is precise.”
Elasa told Banner that the time had come. She had to become anonymous and be a fembot. But first she made love to him, passionately.
“That man you are going to will never know how lucky he is,” Banner said. “I will be here when you return.”
“You know I am programmed to love you, Banner. But I think that even if I wasn’t programmed, I’d have come to love you. Because you know me for what I am, an animated machine, and you accept me just as if I were a real woman.”
“You are a real woman!” he protested.
“Legally, yes, since I won my personhood. But--”
He cut her off with a passionate kiss. That was answer enough.
Soon, bemused, Elasa drove Adela to the Temp office. On the way she downloaded a thorough course in personal secretary information, and Adela changed Elasa’s wig to make her a peach blonde with curls to her waist. Then she had to change into a slightly too-tight dress with a slightly low decolletage. Adela had come prepared with all the things Elasa had not known she would need. She put in matching contact lenses and enhanced her breasts slightly. The car mirror showed a rather sexy young woman without being obvious about it. Elasa was now a different person, Silver Sessions, with an ID to match. How the Awares had arranged that she had no idea, and thought it best not to inquire. Yon Yonson, the private eye, evidently knew his business.
At the Temp office she registered under the new name, and it checked out. She had just arrived from another city, and her references were excellent. “We’re sure you’ll do,” the clerk said reassuringly. “We get frequent calls for women with your skills. In fact we have none in reserve at the moment.”
Her skills? She had seen the woman appraising her figure, knowing what counted.
A phone on the desk sounded. The clerk glanced at it. “In fact there’s a call now.” She whistled. “An important one! Emergency. Go immediately to this address. The name is Pauling Hudson.” The name Adela had mentioned. Surely Bunky’s precognition had figured into this assignment.
Adela had been with her all along, unnoticed. Elasa drove her to the address. “You knew this unlikely coincidence was going to happen,” she said.
“I knew you had to be at the Temp office at the moment the call came in,” Adela agreed. “I did not know the details, just that timing was critical.”
“And my new appearance. I’m the kind of secretary the boss makes passes at.”
“Yes, of course. We spent a long time with the Lamb fathoming exactly what you needed to look like.”
“Well, now you’re stuck with whatever I’m doing tonight. I got no chance to return you to your own site.”
“I will be with you throughout,” Adela said. “Just ignore me, unless I signal you. Then follow my directions precisely.”
Elasa sighed. “When I first contacted you Awares, not all that long ago, I had no idea it would lead to this.”
“Neither did we. But when we got into it, it became apparent. This is important.”
The address turned out to be an eloquent suite in a prominent hotel. She rang the bell, and in a moment a portly older man answered. “I am Silver Sessions, a personal secretary sent by the Temp office,” she said.
“You’re beautiful!”
By no accident. “You have work for me to do?”
“Oh, yes! My regular secretary had an accident, and I have an important interview tomorrow morning. I have to review the background, and I don’t even know how to organize it. My secretary has a system.” He paused. “But I’m babbling. Come in, Miss Sessions.”
“Mrs. Sessions,” she said.
He didn’t bat an eyebrow. “Of course. Here is her material. Do you think you can--”
“Of course.” Elasa took the package, scanned it, and recognized it as an internal intelligence report. She could handle it.
She sat at the table and got to work, while the man relaxed with the holo news and a glass of wine. She was conscious of his eyes on her, appraisingly. “He’s checking you out,” Adela murmured.
Elasa took a deep breath as though girding herself for a challenging effort. This put a strain on her tight decolletage.
“You need to have him in you within the hour,” Adela said. “I will leave you to it.” She departed. What was she up to?
Elasa had the material organized in minutes, then made spot notes to key it in for an extemporaneous presentation. “I believe this is ready, sir,” she said.
“Already? You’ve hardly started.”
“This kind of organization is my specialty,” she said. “I have prepared a standard format. You will want to verify it.” She leaned forward to hand him the note card.
He almost dropped it, distracted by her cleavage. Then he glanced at the card and was surprised. He was of course familiar with the material; it was the presentation he had needed. “This is it! You have keyed in the salient points I need to make. Remarkable.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Paul,” he said warmly. “Have a drink.”
She hesitated. “I do not wish to seem unduly familiar and I prefer not to drink on the job.”
“I think you have completed it, Silver. Now you can relax before you go home.”
“If you are satisfied, Paul.” She glanced at her watch. “Darn! It’s rush hour.”
“A bad time to drive,” he agreed. He proffered her a glass of wine.
She hesitated visibly. “If you are sure it’s all right.”
“Your notes are perfect. You have organized the material in a way I could not. You are a truly competent worker. I would like to know more of you.”
She decided. She accepted the glass and took a sip. She could eat and drink; it merely did not do her any good and had to be eliminated later. “Divine,” she said, settling into an easy chair so that her perfectly crafted thighs were accidentally exposed.
“I always prefer the best.” His pupils dilated as he took in the view. “Your husband is surely a lucky man.”
“He knows my nature.” She crossed her legs carelessly while savoring the wine, and heard the faint catch of his breath. Seduction 101. “He understands when I have to work late.”
“My wife has little interest in my work,” he said. “Or in me.”
“That’s too bad.” There was just a hint of a slur to her words, as if she wasn’t used to wine this potent. Her inhibitions were clearly fading. “You must get lonely.”
“I do,” he confessed. “But the company of a woman like you can do wonders for my comfort.”
“Why Paul! If I didn’t know better I might think you were coming on to me.”
“I would never force myself on a woman.”
She smiled invitingly. “As if force would be necessary. A handsome man like you.” They were getting there on schedule. Men were easy.
“How is it that a woman of your elegance is doing common secretar
ial work?” Pauling asked. “You obviously have superior skills.”
“My husband is—between jobs,” she said. “I do what I can to assist.” She stretched, at the risk of tearing fabric. “I am feeling warm. Do you mind if I loosen my--?”
“Not at all. In fact I’ll join you.” He removed his jacket.
“Thank you.” She loosened the upper contours of her dress, providing her breasts additional exposure. Now somewhat tipsy, it seemed she didn’t notice.
Within half an hour they were both naked and on the bed. He was fascinated by every part of her, especially her breasts. He kissed them avidly. He was a breast man, and she had the best that technology could provide.
Looking past him, Elasa saw Bunky. She masked her surprise, realizing that Adela must have fetched him; that was why she had departed. Had she driven the car? Or were other Awares here? Elasa took hold of Paul’s head and pressed his face between her breasts while the Lamb came close enough to sniff the back of the man’s head. Bunky’s telepathy was strongest up close. He was taking the necessary reading of the essential brain coding.
Then Lamb and Aware were gone, their business completed. Elasa let Paul up for air and guided him into her for a powerful climax. She didn’t need to make any pretense of a climax of her own, though she was adept at faking it; this was all for him.
“Oh Silver!” he gasped. “You perfect creature! I want to take you with me!”
“With you?” she asked, gently perplexed.
“On my global tour. For your secretarial skills. I have many important men to see, and it would be incredibly dull without your company.”
“But your secretary--” His wife at this point was a non-issue.
“Will be out for two weeks.”
“But if you’re traveling globally, I have no passport, no clearance. I’m just a temp secretary.”
“I can clear you with a quick call, as part of my staff.”
“But two weeks—my husband would be concerned.”
“I can arrange for bonus pay that will more than satisfy your husband.” Clearly he had had experience with husbands before.
“Then, perhaps,” she agreed, drawing him back into her bosom. The Awares would keep Banner posted, and actually, the money would be nice.