It was about this time that he found he was beginning to master the
sharing of his host's eyesight. While he might not be able to read
another's mind, it would be a big help to know what someone else was
doing or what he was looking at. He tried searching outside the building
but found nothing, other than an occasional small spot of resistance
that would probably indicate a small animal. This wasn't surprising
since the lab was hidden in caves in a secluded canyon that had no
attraction to the casual wanderer.
His next concentration was on the animals he encountered every so often.
His first few attempts resulted in sudden and complete collapse of
resistance and he sadly concluded that his control had been too powerful
and resulted in their death. He tried more carefully and was overjoyed
when he established contact with their visual senses. The sensation was
almost as over-powering as if he had suddenly gained eyesight of his
own. For the first time in months, he revelled in seeing the country
around the outside of the lab and never before had he thought it so
beautiful. Once, while in control of a rabbit's mind, he saw an eagle
flying overhead. He quickly transferred and, before the bird flew far
enough away to make control impossible, he enjoyed the far-reaching
vision of the bird's eyes as it swept on towards some hidden nest. He
could even see the city in the distance.
* * * * *
Several times he neglected to notice Neil's entrance into the room, so
absorbed did he become in his newly discovered, if second-hand, freedom.
"What's happened to you anyway?" demanded his erstwhile partner one day
after he had had to repeat a question. "Half of the time lately you're
lost in a world of your own. What're you up to anyway?"
"Nothing," replied Mel, suddenly alert to any new danger, although
confident he could take care of himself now. "I was just going over some
new equations I've been formulating as a hobby. Now that you've taken
away my cart, there isn't much to keep me occupied you know. You don't
begin to bring enough problems. What's wrong?"
Mel wished that he could read the other's mind since Neil began to act
evasive. He laughed with a false heartiness. "Wrong? Why I've--we've--"
he corrected, "--already made a fortune on a couple of our own patents
as well as commissions from project solutions. Someone might get
suspicious if we did too well or too much."
This made sense but Mel couldn't resist digging. "You mean that your
past record of success as measured against your supposed one now might
make the police ask questions?" he asked. The other remained silent so
he pressed the attack. "Or are they already wondering why I haven't been
seen for so long?"
"There were a few questions at first," admitted the other, "but I think
I've satisfied them all. However, I've been thinking that it might be a
good idea to move you somewhere else."
"But hardly anyone knows the lab exists," protested Mel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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