ng below Blalok's house. "This is it," he said

n said, "also too quiet

d Doc never kept the

epy-eyed Lani blinked at them in the sudden glare. She looked blankly at Kenno

i I sent down this morning-Dr. Kenno

ll be back in a moment." She stepped quickly over to the switchboard beside the door and pun

e emergency

's our ne

himself. He turned to Jordan. "Ar

surprise. "No, sir-didn't you

ha

e hasn't been a male on the island since Old

ossible! How do

artificial f

ing are haploids and they're sterile. T

for better than four centuries, and we're still doing all right. Over forty

w is it

us everything. All I know is that we get results. Old Doc knew how i

id most of the manual labor. The sixth, the late arrival, was an elegant creature, a bronze-skinned, green-eyed minx with an elfin face half hidden under a wavy mass of red-brown hair. U

ly the tension and strangeness was broken. He felt

plied, "if it's necessary.

at last carcass prepped for a post

ce Kennon. "Now, Doctor-would you like to see your office? Old Doc left a fine c

itted. "Unless the inner structure of a L

e redhead admitted. "After

ter do some read

any more?"

thin

this any better than Blalok or the boss, b

eft. "Now, let's get ready

rrected. "A cadaver is a dead hum

n old-fashioned plastic desk, some office cybernetics, a battered voicewriter, and a few chairs completed the furnishings. The redhead placed several large folio volumes in

dge of Lani viscera, Kennon looked up at the redhead. She w

et's go," he said.

s,

e? I don't want

Copper Glow-want

ing to me. Do they call yo

Copper

Copper-let's

ight of the fluorescents. She had been hardly more than a child. Kennon felt a twinge

adavers. The sarcoplastic models were all right, but when it came to flesh, Kennon didn't have the stomach for it. And now, the sight of the

rus and a swollen abdomen-the rest was essentially normal. And he knew with cold certainty t

tanding across the table from him a

own dissection. He examined. And that he could do. It was the tactile, not the vi

deftly severed its attachments and laid the organ out for inspection. The cause of death was obvious. The youngster had succumbed to a massive liver-fluke inf

at the other

minor differences, the lesions were identical. He remove

," he said. "You

hunt. Now he must act to prevent further murders, to reconstruct the crime, to find the modu

ined. Studies would have to be made on its life cycle, and the means by which it gained entrance to its host. It wouldn't be s

s adult form. The arrangements of the suckers and genital structures were typical. Old Doc's library on parasites was too inadequate for more than diagnosis. He would have

quietly into the office. She looked at him c

it?" Kenn

l out the autopsy pro

y to knock on a doo

Doc never me

ot Old

ay old man." She paused and eyed Kennon appraisingly with a look on her pointed face that was the

n beautiful or prett

y n

t isn't

said. "I called Old Doc be

erent. He wa

rence does

ennon said, hitting

d cocked sideways. "I guess I have a lot to learn about you. You're much different f

n bli

ni concerned be posted in the death book together with all pertinent autopsy data. Man Blalok is very fussy about proper r

could he dictate a coldly precise report with a naked redhead sitting beside him? "Look," he said. "

" she said, her green eyes filling

And stop that sniveling-or get out. B

to her fe

imself. He had behaved like a primitive rather than a member of one of the oldest human civilizations in the galaxy. He wouldn't bark at a dog that way. He shook hi

d. And it wasn't because he'd been away from women too long. A week was hardly that. He grinned as he recalled the blonde from Thule aboard the sta

hrugged and turned his attention to the autopsy report, but it was hopeless. He couldn't concentrate. He jotted a few note