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I.
    "Didn't mean to."
    "You did, though. So why?"
    "Why what?"
    "Why you? Don? Here? Tonight?"
    She touched her tongue to her upper lip, then pressed it hard, as though to squeeze out the grape-juice or keep in the words. Then she looked over at Don, but he was too far away to have heard, and he was looking in another direction anyhow. He was busy pouring Myshtigo a real Coke from the pitcher in the exec dip-tray. The Coke formula had been the archaeological find of the century, according to the Vegans. It was lost during the Three Days and recovered only a decade or so ago. There had been lots of simicokes around, but none of them have the same effect on Vegan metabolism as the real thing.
    "Earth's second contribution to galactic culture,"
    one of their contemporary historians had called it.
    The first contribution of course, being a very fine new social problem oTthe sort that weary Vegan THIS IMMORTAL 29
    philosophers had been waiting around for generations to have happen.
    Diane looked back.
    "Don't know yet," she said. "Ask Don."
    "I will."
    I did, too. Later, though. And I wasn't disappointed, inasmuch as I expected nothing-But, as I sat trying as hard as I could to eavesdrop, there was suddenly a sight-vision overlay, of the sort a shrink had once classified for me as a pseudotelepathic wish-fulfillment. It works like this: I want to know what's going on somewhere. I have almost-sufficient information to guess. Therefore, I do. Only it comes on as though I am seeing it and hearing it through the eyes and ears of one of the parties involved. It's not real telepathy, though, I don't think, because it can sometimes be wrong. It sure seems real, though.
    The shrink could tell me everything about it but why.
    Which is how I
    was standing in the middle of the room, was staring at Myshtigo,
    was DOS Santos,
    was saying:
    "... will be going along, for your protection. Not as Radpol Secretary, just a private citizen."
    f "I did not solicit your protection," the Vegan was
    | saying, "however, I thank you. I will accept your 3 offer to circumvent my death at the hands of your comrades"-and he smiled as he said it-"if they should seek it during my travels. I doubt that they will, but I should be a fool to refuse the shield of DOS Santos."
    30
    ROGER ZELAZNY
    "You are wise," we said, bowing slightly.
    "Quite," said Cort. "Now tell me"-he nodded toward Ellen, who had just finished arguing with George about anything and was stamping away from him-"who is that?"
    "•Ellen Emmet, the wife of George Emmet, the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Department."
    "What is her price?"
    "I don't know that she's quoted one recently."
    "Well, what did it used to be?"
    "There never was one."
    "Everything on Earth has a price."
    "In that case, I suppose you'll have to find out for yourself."
    "I will," he said.
    Earth femmes have always held an odd attraction for Vegans. A Veggy once told me that they make him feel rather like a zoophilist. Which is interesting, because a pleasure girl at the Cote d'Or Resort once told me, with a giggle, that Vegans made her feel rather like we 2.oophiliste. I guess those jets of air must tickle or something and arouse both beasts.
    "By the way," we said, "have you stopped beating your wife lately?"
    "Which one?" asked Myshtigo.
    Fadeout, and me back in my chair.
    "... What," George Emmet was asking, "do you think of that?"
    I stared at him. He hadn't been there a second ago. He had come up suddenly and perched himself on the wide wing of my chair.
    "Come again, please. I was dozing."
    "I said we've beaten the spiderbat. What do you think of that?"
    THIS IMMORTAL 31
    "It rhymes," I observed. "So tell me how we've beaten the spiderbat."
    But he was laughing. He's one of those guys with whom laughter is an unpredictable thing. He'll go around looking sour for days, and then some little thing will set him /off giggling. He sort of gasps when he laughs, like a baby, and that impression is reinforced by his pink