hallways, balancing his suddenly heavier torso and increasing his pace gradually until he was able to run without agony. He hardened his healing hands and feet by smashing the boards; in time he developed monstrously thick calluses. He stood still, this time not moving at all, while Sosa struck his stomach, neck and head with all her strength-with a staff-and he laughed.
Then with a steeltrap motion he caught the weapon froni her inexpert grasp and bent it into an S shape by a single exertion of his two trunklike wrists. He pinioned her own wrists, both together, with the fingers and thumb of one hand and lifted her gently off the floor, smiling.
Sosa jackknifed and drove both heels against his exposed chin. 'Ouch!' she screamed. 'That's like landing on a chunk of stone!'
He chuckled and draped her unceremoniously across his right shoulder while hefting his weight and hers upon the bottom rung of the ladder with that same right arm. She writhed and jammed stiffened fingers into his left shouldet just inside the collarbone. 'You damned gorilla,' she complained. 'You've got calluses over your pressure points!'
'Nylon calluses,' he said matter-of-factly. 'I could break a gorilla in two.' His voice was harsh; the collar constricting his throat destroyed any dulcet utterances he attempted.
'You're still a great ugly beast!' she said, clamping her teeth hard upon the lobe of his ear and chewing.
'Ugly as hell,' he agreed, turning his head so that she was compelled to release her bite or have her neck stretched painfully.
'Awful taste,' she whispered as she let go. 'I love you.'
He reversed rotation, and she `jammed her lips against his face and kissed him furiously. 'Take me back to our room, Sos,' she said. 'I want to feel needed.'
He obliged, but the aftermath was not entirely harmonious. 'You're still thinking of her,' she accused him. 'Even when we're-'
'That's all over,' he said, but the words lacked conviction.
'It's not over! It hasn't even begun yet. You still love her and you're going back!'
'It's an assignment. You know that.'
'She isn't the assignment. It's almost time for you to go, and I'll never see you again, and you can't even tell me you love me.'
'I do love you.'
'But not as much as you love her.'
'Sosa, she is hardly fit to be compared to you. You're a warm, wonderful girl, and I would love you much more, in time. I'm going back, but I want you to keep my bracelet. How else can I convince you?'
She wrapped herself blissfully about him. 'I know it, Sos. I'm a demented jealous bitch. It's just that I'm losing you forever, and I can't stand it. The rest of my life without you-'
'Maybe I'll send a replacement.' But it ceased to be funny as he said it.
After a moment she brightened slightly. 'Let's do it again, Sos. Every minute counts.'
'Hold on, woman! I'm not that sort of a superman!'
'Yes you are,' she said. And she proved him wrong again.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nameless and weaponless, he marched. It was spring, almost two years after he had journeyed dejectedly toward the mountain. Sos had gone to oblivion; the body that clothed his brain today was a different one, his face a creation of the laboratory, his voice a croak. Plastic contacts made his eyes stare out invulnerably, and his hair sprouted without pigment.
Sos was gone-but secret memories remained within the nameless one, surging irrepressibly when evoked by familiar sights. He was anonymous but not feelingless. It was almost possible to forget, as he traveled alone, missing the little bird on his shoulder, that he came as a
