Manet opened the book and, turning one blank page, found the title in larger print and slightly amplified: <i>The Making of Friends and Others</i>. There was no author listed. A further line of information stated: "A Manual for Lifo, The Socialization Kit." At the bottom of the title page, the publisher was identified as: LIFO KIT CO., LTD., SYRACUSE. The unnumbered first chapter was headed <i>Your First Friend</i>. /# Before you go further, first find the <i>Modifier</i> in your kit. This is <i>vital</i>. #/ He quickly riffled through the pages. <i>Other Friends, Authority, A Companion</i>.... Then <i>The Final Model</i>. Manet tried to flip past this section, but the pages after the sheet labeled <i>The Final Model</i> were stuck together. More than stuck. There was a thick slab of plastic in the back of the book. The edges were ridged as if there were pages to this section, but they could only be the tracks of lame ants. Manet flipped back to page one. /# First find the <i>Modifier</i> in your kit. This is <i>vital</i> to your entire experiment in socialization. The <i>Modifier is Part #A-1</i> on the Master Chart. #/ He prowled through the box looking for some kind of a chart. There was nothing that looked like a chart inside. He retrieved the lid and looked at its inside. Nothing. He tipped the box and looked at its outside. Not a thing. There was always something missing from kits. Maybe even the <i>Modifier</i> itself. He read on, and probed and scattered the parts in the long box. He studied the manual intently and groped out with his free hand. The toe bone was connected to the foot bone.... <tb> The Red King sat smugly in his diagonal corner. The Black King stood two places away, his top half tipsy in frustration. The Red King crabbed sideways one square. The Black King pounced forward one space. The Red King advanced backwards to face the enemy. The Black King shuffled sideways. The Red King followed.... Uselessly. "Tie game," Ronald said. "Tie game," Manet said. "Let's talk," Ronald said cheerfully. He was always cheerful. Cheerfulness was a personality trait Manet had thumbed out for him. Cheerful. Submissive. Co-operative. Manet had selected these factors in order to make Ronald as different a person from himself as possible. "The Korean-American War was the greatest of all wars," Ronald said pontifically. "Only in the air," Manet corrected him. Intelligence was one of the factors Manet had punched to suppress. Intelligence. Aggressiveness. Sense of perfection. Ronald couldn't know any more than Manet, but he could (and did) know less. He had seen to that when his own encephalograph matrix had programmed Ronald's feeder. "There were no dogfights in Korea," Ronald said. "I know."