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He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. She spaced each word carefully, sweetly. “You were quite right. Because you were the only man on Earth, Clarey, who had the particular physical requirements and the particular kind of mental instability that we needed for the job. You just said you weren’t unique, Clarey. You were too modest; you are. If you’d killed yourself then, your death would have served a purpose; you would have died a hero. Kill yourself now and you die a coward.”

“But at least I’d be dead. I wouldn’t have to live with a coward for the rest of my life.”

“You’re not a coward, Clarey,” she said. “You wouldn’t admit it, but you are and always have been a patriot. To you, Earth came first. It’s as simple as that.”

She had deep-probed his mind. She must know his true feelings. There was no gainsaying that. He could know only his surface thoughts; she knew what lay behind and beneath. And, he reminded himself, at the end the Damorlanti were actually turning on him.

“Try to think of the whole thing as a course in charm that you’ve passed with flying colors,” she said.