Silently, Joan turned away from him and watched Mercer walking.
“You know I’m right,” Ray said. “I can pick up your emotions. You may not be aware of them, but they’re there.”
On the screen, a rock was thrown at Mercer. It struck him on the shoulder.
Everyone who’s holding onto his empathy box, Joan realized, felt that along with Mercer.
Ray nodded. “You’re right.”
“And—what about when he’s actually killed?” She shuddered.
“We’ll see what happens then,” Ray said quietly. “We don’t know.”
II
To Bogart Crofts, Secretary of State Douglas Herrick said, “I think you’re wrong, Boge. The girl may be Meritan’s mistress but that doesn’t mean she knows.”
“We’ll wait for Mr. Lee to tell us,” Crofts said irritably. “When she gets to Havana he’ll be waiting to meet her.”
“Mr. Lee can’t scan Meritan direct?”
“One telepath scan another?” Bogart Crofts smiled at the thought. It conjured up a nonsensical situation: Mr. Lee reading Meritan’s mind, and Meritan, also being a telepath, would read Mr. Lee’s mind and discover that Mr. Lee was reading his mind, and Lee, reading Meritan’s mind, would discover that Meritan knew—and so forth. Endless regression, winding up with a fusion of minds, within which Meritan carefully guarded his thoughts so that he did not think about Wilbur Mercer.
“It’s the similarity of names that convinces me,” Herrick said. “Meritan, Mercer. The first three letters—?”
Crofts said, “Ray Meritan is not Wilbur Mercer. I’ll tell you how we know. Over at CIA, we made an Ampex video tape from Mercer’s telecast, had it enlarged and analyzed. Mercer was shown against the usual dismal background of cactus plants and sand and rock… you know.”
“Yes,” Herrick said, nodding. “The Wilderness, as they call it.”
“In the enlargement something showed up in the sky. It was studied. It’s not Luna. It’s a moon, but too small to be Luna. Mercer is not on Earth. I would guess that he is not a terrestrial at all.”