"God's dentures! It's beautiful!" he said softly. "Tell me again what it is called."

"Tyrannosaurus rex."

"Fitting. Yes, so fitting! It's lovely!"

He stood unmoving for over a minute. Then he asked "How did you obtain this wonderful beast? I was given to believe that they only existed in the extremely distant past."

"True. It took a fusion-powered vessel flying above the Road at a very good clip for a very long while to get back that far."

'Yet the Road does extend back to those days... Amazing! And how did you transport something of

that size, that power?"

"Didn't. The team I sent narcotized one and brought a tissue sample to a period about fifteen years back. This specimen was cloned from that sample—that is to say, he is an artificially cultivated twin of the original."

"Beautiful, oh beautiful! I don't understand, but it does not make a bit of difference—adds to the charm, the mystery, in fact. Now, tell me of your control over

it." "You see those metallic plates on its head and back?"

"Yes."

"They are implant grids. A great number of tiny electrodes extend down from them into the creature's nervous system. A moment..."

He walked away, crossing to a workstand from which he obtained a small rectangular box and a silver basket He returned with these and displayed them.

"This," he said, indicating the box, "is a computer—"

"A thinking machine?"

"Oh, someone has been briefing you. Well, sort of. This one is also a broadcast unit."

He threw a switch. A tiny light came on behind a dial. There was no sound.

"You can make it do whatever you want—with that?"

"Better than that."

He fitted the basket over his head, adjusted its band. "Far better," he said, "for there is feedback." The reptile raised its head, turned it to regard them. "... I see two men looking down at me. One is wearing something shiny on his head. I am going to wave to them—my right forelimb."