Unicorn Point

14 - Agape

“I hate this!” she protested.

“There be no other way,” Bane reminded her. “For the first game, each side chose its own champion. For the second, each chose the champion o’ the other. For this third, each had to compromise. We vetoed their first and second choices, so they vetoed ours; thus thou must bear our standard.”

“But against Citizen Tan!” Agape said. “He hates me!”

“Aye, and with reason,” he said, smiling. “Was thy body the mare used to tweak his hardware. But this be a game; thou hast merely to play the grid properly, and he can do naught ‘gainst thee.”

“Oh, Bane, I am afraid!”

He held her, but could not console her. “I would free thee o’ this duty an I could, but it be set. The games be e’en; thou must win this one for Blue!”

“I am afraid I will lose!”

“Just remember the strategy: keep it in Mental an thou canst, and in Machine if that be thine option. Then he can not get at thee directly.”

“He will find a way!” she said with dire premonition. “Oh, I could just melt!”

“Later, after thou has won the game,” he said, smiling. But she was not reassured. She felt singulariy inadequate to the occasion. How could she, an alien creature, hope to prevail against a hard-driving malignant Citizen? She wished most ardently that she had never had to return from Moeba, once she had escaped Proton. But that would have meant continued separation from Bane, and from Nepe, and that, too, was intolerable.

All too soon it was time. In the morning she approached the designated console. Citizen Tan was already there, staring at her fixedly. She knew that he did not choose to distinguish between herself and Fleta, and well remembered his pain of the body and pride, years ago, and he had never forgiven those injuries. He was a man bent on vengeance. “So the amoeba slides in,” he said, unsmiling. She did not answer. She took her place at the console and tried not to shrink too visibly from his gaze. The screen lighted. She almost dissolved with relief: she had the numbers!

She moved her hand carefully, so as to make no foolish error. She touched one finger to 2. MENTAL. There, she had done it! There could be no physical contact between them. She felt as if she had won a significant encounter already.

She could not have asked for a better break. Tan made his selection, as if it were a matter of indifference, and the screen blinked and displayed the secondary grid: 2D. ANIMAL-ASSISTED MENTAL. This meant that they would be playing through animals, commanding them or sending their directives to them by other means. Agape was surprised; she had not thought Citizen Tan to have any interest whatever in animals.

Then she suffered a wash of apprehension: surely he was up to something malignant! Somehow he hoped to get at her physically through those animals. Yet how could he, in the mental category?

Alas, that became all too quickly evident. The definition of “animal” included not only the conventional dogs, cats, horses and such, but also androids of all types, and also the human animal. Thus she found herself playing the primary grid again, this time for the nature of the animal encounter. Bemused, she made what she feared were bad choices, and found herself in the very category she most wanted to avoid:

NAKED PHYSICAL, HUMAN ANIMAL. This was a trap of MENTAL that she had somehow overlooked: it reopened everything else. She played the tertiary grid in a blur, certain that disaster was upon her.

Abruptly it ended: they were in Flat Surface Interactive, Human Animal-Assisted, Naked Physical-Surrogate Sex. “Do each of you understand the nature of the selected game?” the voice of the Game Computer inquired. “Naturally,” Tan snapped.

“N-no,” Agape confessed. She only knew it was trouble.

How could she have let the Citizen stampede her into this? “I will explain for the benefit of the one who pleads ignorance,” the voice said. “Each player will select an actor of the same sex from the available menu. The actors will be attuned to thoughts sent by their players, and will be responsive to such thoughts if they are not in conflict with the actors’ natural inclinations. One player will be designated the initiator, the other the receiver; these designations will reverse at three-hour intervals. The initiator will within the period seduce the receiver—”

“What?” Agape cried faintly.

“And be adjudged the winner of the fall,” the machine continued blithely. “If the initiator fails in that period, the receiver wins the fall. Then the receiver will become the initiator and will seduce the new receiver, with the fall similarly determined. For the final period the roles will reverse again. The strictures against force will be relaxed in the final period, so as to ensure a decision. If the initiator does not succeed, the victory will go to the receiver, as the winner of two of three falls.”

“What am I to do?” Agape cried in despair. Citizen Tan said something impolite and very much to the point. He, of course, was enjoying this. He had succeeded after all in bringing her to a sexual encounter, and he in tended to have his measure of flesh.

“The setting will be the Commons,” the Game Computer said. “Neither actor will be allowed to leave it until the game is concluded, on pain of default. Interference by others will not be tolerated. You will now select your actors, who will be routed to the Commons without being advised of their roles.”

“But do you mean real people?” Agape cried. “How can we—”

“A further explanation,” the machine said patiently. “The actors will be selected from a pool formed by volunteers that is maintained at a constant level. Each volunteer has been examined and approved, then awareness of this process has been deleted. Only after the game is complete will they understand that they have played their parts. They will be compensated, and of course they will have a certain notoriety because of the significance of this particular game. No onus attaches to them for what occurs. They are real people, but they understood the range of parts available when they vol unteered.”

“Oh.” It was all she could manage at the moment.

“Now you will make your selections. Touch the screen to enlarge a card, and touch SELECT when the card is the one you choose.” A pattern of pictures and very fine text appeared on the screen.

Agape nerved herself to glance at Citizen Tan. He was looking at his own screen. It was evident that he was having absolutely no trouble with this. He had probably played this game before. But how could she try to seduce him, or his agent—his actor? Even with her actress? What would Bane think?

She knew the answer to the last question. Bane wanted her to win this game and the tourney, so that Citizen Blue would prevail. Bane loved her, but he was a realist. He would tell her to do what she had to do.

But could she? The very notion of seeking a sexual encounter with another man, even via a surrogate, appalled her. All she knew of this subject she had learned with Bane.

Granted the necessity, still she doubted she could do it. Then she thought of Nepe, captive of the Citizens. Her child. A victory here would bring her back. Now Agape knew that she would do it.

She touched a picture. Immediately it expanded to fill the screen. It showed a beautiful young woman with an expansive halo of black hair, dramatically erect and full breasts, and a confident expression. The text said: NAME: Milda. SEX:

Female. AGE: 23 Earth Years. EMPLOYER: Citizen Bliven.

ASSIGNMENT: On Call.

Agape read no further. No wonder the woman was beautiful; she was the Citizen’s mistress! She was apt to be an easy mark for an amorous serf, because Citizen sex, by most accounts, was demanding and not particularly pleasant for the serf, male or female. The Citizen had to be pleased, at all costs; the penalty for failure was to be fired, and that was bad news on Proton. Thus if a man came who sought sex on an equal basis, the woman should be nattered. She touched the picture again, and it condensed back to its prior place, surrounded by others. Agape touched a new one. This showed a relatively homely woman. There was nothing wrong with her appearance; she just was not anything a man would choose to pursue. This one might therefore diminish the male actor’s ardor.

Agape realized immediately that her notion was flawed. Suppose a handsome man pursued and flattered such a woman? Unaccustomed to such attention, she might welcome it, and do whatever the man asked in an effort to please him. Agape, as the player, could tell her no, but that might not carry much weight, being contrary to her natural inclinations. She touched the picture again, and it diminished. The third picture seemed about right: a pretty but slightly older woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She would surely be quite fetching when she smiled, and less attractive otherwise. The legend said: NAME: Deerie. SEX: Female. AGE: 30 Earth Years. EMPLOYER: Citizen Tosme. AS SIGNMENT: Foot Massager. INTELLIGENCE: 1.15. CREATIVITY: .95 STABILITY: 1.21.

Agape nodded. This looked very good. Deerie was old enough to know her mind, especially with a stability quotient twenty-one per cent above the norm. She had a simple menial job which might be a cover for “on call” and probably would accede to whatever demand the Citizen might make, but would be no easy mark for anyone else. Female serfs did not even count Citizen seductions as sex; it was just an involuntary necessity. This was a reasonably smart, unimaginative woman perhaps halfway through her Proton tenure; she would want to get all the way through without problems, and take her pay to her home world. Serfs who made it through could retire quite comfortably elsewhere; the system made it worth their while to undergo this servitude.

But how would this one be if she had to seduce a strange man? Here that lower creativity score should help: she would accept Agape’s bright notions as her own, not thinking to question them or to develop other options. Would her age count against her in this respect? Perhaps not, for she pos sessed quite comely features and was well proportioned throughout. Probably she exercised, because she looked physically fit. That could help if it came to violence—as, unfortunately, it could.

Agape touched SELECT. She would take Deerie as her actress. Citizen Tan, naturally, had long since chosen. “Go to the two privacy booths indicated,” the Game Computer said. A line appeared on the floor, leading away. She followed her line, glad that it did not go in the same direction as Citizen Tan’s line. At least she would be away from him physically.

The line led to a glassed-in booth. She entered and closed the door. There was a comfortable chair. That was all. She sat in the chair. Immediately the wall before it became a picture: the Commons, the region of relaxation for serfs when they were not working for their Citizens. It had many couches and beds, food machines, pools, and screens on which recorded entertainments could be evoked. It was a pleasant place; she had visited it many times with Bane, and many more times without him, during his absences in Phaze. She had brought Nepe here, in the early years before Nepe disappeared; the child had proved to be precocious with the entertainments. The rule was that serfs were free to do what ever they wished, here, provided it did not directly interfere with the pleasures of others. They could indeed indulge in sexual activity here, in full view; those who did not want to watch were free to look elsewhere. Thus this was the proper setting for a game such as this.

“Your opponent has the onus,” the Game Computer said. “He has therefore been advised of the identity of your actress. Speak cautiously; from this moment all that you say will be conveyed to your actress as soundless thought.”

“But—“ Agape started.

The picture on the wall jumped, as if someone had reacted. Agape realized that her word had been relayed, and that Deerie had heard in her mind But—! Naturally she had jumped; she didn’t understand why such a thought had come into her head.

She kept quiet and watched, and after a moment Deerie resumed her motion. Agape realized that the wall-picture she saw was what the actress saw; it moved as her vision did. How this effect was achieved Agape wasn’t certain; she had never played this particular game before and never explored this effect. Perhaps cameras on the woman relayed their pic tures, and the Game Computer assembled these into a holo graphic image that duplicated what the woman should be seeing. For it was three-dimensional; it seemed that the wall was glass, and that she was seeing through it into the Com mons.

Deerie walked past a mirror, and glanced a moment at her reflection. Agape caught a glimpse of the woman of the picture. The hair was longer now, and the breasts drooped somewhat; how long ago had that picture been taken? But the woman was moving on before Agape could assess the situation fully.

“No!” she said. “Stay and look a moment longer.” The image turned, as the actress responded. She faced back and approached the mirror again.

Agape had spoken involuntarily, but realized that the woman had taken it as her own thought. It was amazing how well this worked! But it would be better to provide a rationale, so that Deerie would not get suspicious. “I haven’t really looked at myself in some time,” Agape said. “I would like to reassure myself that I still look respectable.”

The woman stood before the mirror. She straightened her back and inhaled. Now her breasts lifted, becoming erect and prominent, and her belly flattened. Yes, she had a good figure; the years had not yet eroded it. “Yes, that’s nice,” Agape said. “I should maintain a better posture, so as to show my self off to advantage; there is no point in slouching and having others think I am getting old.”

Agape’s eye was caught by a brightening light to the side. She looked, and realized that the border around the wall picture contained a series of panels that glowed gently. The brightening one had letters formed by shading: PRIDE. Deerie was experiencing the emotion of pride! That was how the player knew the emotions of the actor; by watching the panels glow.

“Yes, I am glad I paused to take stock of myself,” Agape said. “I am reassured.”

Deerie lifted her hand to her hair. The brown tresses were pinned back by a comb. She lifted this out and used it to comb out her hair. Because serfs had no clothes, they had no pockets; unless a woman wanted to carry a purse, which was a nuisance on Proton, she had few ways to keep articles with her. Thus the double-duty comb was common. Deerie formed her hair into gentle inward curls about her shoulders, so that the outline of her face was softened. “Yes, I look better,” Agape said. She was becoming comfortable with this mode of communication, and was developing a certain rapport with her actress.

The woman set the comb back into the top of her hair, where it resembled part of a tiara, another nice effect. She walked on through the Commons, evidently going to some particular entertainment.

She came to a bank of food machines and punched for a cup of water. Agape was surprised. Water, when anything at all was available? What kind of relaxation was this? But then Deerie moved on to an exercise region, and it made sense. She did not want to be burdened with digestion when working out, but water was all right. Deerie got on the track that circled the region, and began jogging. Slowly she picked up speed, until her breath was heaving. A new panel glowed: EXHILARATION. No wonder she was healthy: her idea of entertainment was to run hard!

”May I join you?” a man inquired, falling in beside her.

Deerie jumped, and so did Agape; neither had noticed his approach.

The actress turned her head to look at him. He was a tall, muscular man of about her own age, bronzed and handsome. Evidently somewhat of a professional when it came to physical exercise. “As you wish,” Deerie replied noncommittally.

“I have seen you here before,” the man said. Though he matched her pace, he was not the least winded. “Frankly, I like your look. Do you like mine?”

Suddenly Agape remembered what they were here for. Citizen Tan had taken a male body, and was out to seduce Deerie! She had to stop this before it got going! “I don’t trust this man!” Agape said. “I don’t know him, and I fear his intentions.”

But for the first time she encountered resistance. Deerie, as it turned out, was interested in men, and this was the kind she liked. She had no illusions about their interest, but since she wasn’t seeking anything permanent, that didn’t bother her. She trusted her judgment, not the man, and she deemed this one as a fit companion for an hour’s fun. At least, so Agape interpreted the woman’s reactions.

“I think he’s a sadist,” Agape said desperately. “He wants to get me alone and hurt me, and make me cry, and then he will laugh and call me a foolish old maid.” That thought had better effect.

“Some other time,” Deerie said, and slowed and stepped off the track. The man looked disappointed, but did not pursue her. He ran on down the track, and in a moment was out of sight. “You certainly dispatched him, Deerie,” another man said.

She looked around. “Oh, hello. Handy,” she panted. “What are you doing here?”

“Just thought I’d see how the other half lives,” Handy said. “I never exercise myself.” He was tall and slender, with a handsome shock of blond hair. “I’m more of a games man myself.”

“I know,” Deerie agreed. “I’ve seen you play. But you’re only twenty-one; when you get to be my age, you’ll exercise or sag. Better to start early and stay in shape.” Agape was relieved. These two knew each other, and were friendly, so Handy might serve as a buffer between Deerie and Tan’s actor. She should keep them together until the danger passed. “I never realized what good company Handy is,” she said for Deerie’s benefit.

Handy laughed in response to Deerie’s remark, for an instant startling Agape, because it was almost as if he had heard her words. “You may have a point! I would never have taken you for twenty-five!”

“For what?” Deerie asked, startled in her turn.

“I really thought you were my age, but someone said you were older. Maybe they were teasing me.”

“I’m thirty.”

He laughed again. “I’m not that gullible! Come on, how old really? Twenty-four?”

Deerie studied him. He was young, but a fine figure of a man. “Thirty, really,” she said, flattered. “I don’t believe it. But I’m always ready to play a game.

?Will you bet on it?”

“I’ll bet, but you’ll lose.”

“Good enough. What are the stakes?”

Deerie eyed him, mixed emotions showing on the panels:

SPECULATION, PLEASURE, SURPRISE. “What did you have in mind?”

He eyed her back. “You know, I never thought of you this way before, but you’re one pretty woman! If you are under thirty, I want your love.”

“And if I am thirty, what do I get?”

Handy spread his hands. “I have little to offer. Would you settle for instruction in gamesmanship?”

“No. I have no interest in the Game.”

“Then you must name something else. I being a young man with only one thing on my mind, can’t think of anything else.”

The panels were glowing more brightly. The actress was really flattered by the attention of this young man. “Exercise!” Deerie exclaimed. “You will run with me ten loops around the track!”

“I’d collapse in two,” he said. “You look great running; I was watching you. From in front your breasts jog almost independently of your body, and from behind—“

“Take it or leave it!” she cut in, laughing.

He looked woebegone. “Oh, I’ll take it! But I have to win, because I won’t look a fraction as good as you on that track, especially after I collapse.”

They went to an information screen. “My name is Deerie,” the actress said. “I work for Citizen Tosme. How old am I, in standard Earth years?”

The screen flickered. Then the number 30 appeared.

“Oh, no!” Handy groaned. “Wait, let me verify this; maybe this unit’s out of whack.” He stepped up to the screen. “My name is Handy. I work for Citizen Merely as a furniture polisher. How old am I?”

The numbers appeared: 21.

“And are you sure she’s thirty?”

YES.

He sighed. “Well, I’m hung for it.” He looked at her again. “Damn, you sure don’t look it! Are you sure I can’t talk you into my kind of exercise instead?”

Deerie, highly flattered and intrigued, was tempted.

“Well-“

“Oh, thank you, you lovely creature!” he exclaimed. He was obviously sincere; he was getting an erection. Suddenly Agape suffered a shock of suspicion. The first man had desisted immediately, while this one was intent on seduction. His every word was calculated flattery! Was this Tan’s actor?

She couldn’t gamble that he was not. She realized that the fact that Deerie knew him meant nothing; Tan could have chosen him partly for that reason. And Agape had almost been deceived—if that was the case.

“Too fast!” she said. “I really don’t know him that well. I’d better hold him off a while, just to be sure.” Because Agape realized that a direct negation might not take, at this point; Deerie’s panels were glowing, and among them LUST was gaining brightness. With a man, that one would be the first to glow, while with a woman it might be the last, but it could be very strong in its time, as Agape herself knew. She was not human, but she had emulated a human female for some time, studying the nuances, and when she had learned about sex she had discovered its compulsive component. How she wanted to be with Bane right now! But she was about to lose the fall, unless Handy really was an innocent friend. That seemed decreasingly likely.

Deerie was hesitating, her new thoughts at variance with her growing emotion. Agape jumped in to buttress her side. “He lost the bet! He’s just trying to get out of running. He really doesn’t care about me; he probably thinks I’m ancient, but he’d rather put up with me than wear himself out on the track.”

That got through. The actress was highly conscious of the age differential, which didn’t matter for incidental contacts but loomed larger in sexual matters. She did not wish to be foolish. “Hold on there,” she said. “I didn’t say I would. You lost the bet, remember! I don’t think I should let you off so easy.”

Handy’s erection was now at full mast. “Oh, Deerie, don’t tease me like this! You can see I’m not lying. I really do want you!” He glanced down at himself, as if confirming it. “Every man wants every woman!” Agape retorted. In deed, she knew that Citizen Tan wanted her, though that was more for the purpose of humiliating her than from actual desire.

“Every man does,” Deerie said, speaking the thought. “That is, a man doesn’t have to like or respect a woman, he just wants sex wherever he can find it.” Well said! Agape was getting along well with Deerie, or maybe it was the other way around.

“But I tike and respect you!” Handy protested.

“Sure you do, joker,” another woman said, noting the display. “That’s what you said to Jezebel last week, but then you cut her dead.”

What a break! Handy had a past, and now that was interfering with his present ploy. Tan’s ploy! How was he going to explain this?

He tried. “Jezebel was a cow compared to Deerie here. Deerie’s the one I really want.”

“My best friend—a cow?” the woman demanded. “Listen, jerk, I’ve got three quarters of a mind to take that rod of yours and bend it in half!”

“Like to see you try!” a muffled man’s voice came from somewhere. It seemed that the neighboring serfs were catching on to the sport.

“I had better get out of here before it gets embarrassing,” Agape said.

At this point, Deerie was glad to agree. She had been nattered and intrigued by Handy’s advance, and not at all dismayed by his erection, but she did not want to be a laughingstock. She made a quiet retreat, while Handy was occupied with the other woman.

Agape was relieved. She had survived the first advance. Now she just had to stay clear for the remainder of the period, and this fall would be hers. She couldn’t leave the Commons, but she could get involved in something else, so that Handy would have trouble approaching her.

“Let’s see, what do I usually do after I exercise?” she asked.

“I go to the pool and exercise some more,” Deerie answered herself.

Soon they were swimming. Her location was hardly unknown; it seemed that every woman in the Commons had heard about her episode with Handy the moment it happened. “Good going, girl!” one woman called as she swam by. “They think all they have to do is get it up, and any woman near will leap on!” And, surprisingly, even a few men were chuckling. They liked a good joke as well as the women did, so long as it was on someone else.

Thus it was that the time passed, and Deerie escaped her seduction. Agape had won the first fall! But now it was the second period, and the onus was on her. The Game Computer confirmed that Handy was the one she had to seek. Her actress had to seduce Tan’s actor, or lose the fall. This was the part she hated most. But she had to do it. She nerved herself, then began working on Deerie, who was sunning herself on the tanning beach. ‘ ‘I guess I wasn’t too nice to him. Maybe I should give him his settlement after all.”

Deerie, as it turned out, was amenable. She had been turned off the liaison because of the developing embarrassment, not because she disliked the notion. She got ‘up and went in search of Handy.

He was glumly having a drink. Intoxicants were forbidden to serfs, but the convention remained: a person was allowed to decrease inhibitions after imbibing. She sat down beside him. “Handy, I’m sorry,” she said.

“I shouldn’t have made it awkward for you this morning.” He looked at her. Agape could guess his thoughts. Citizen Tan wanted to curse her, but he was aware that because he had lost the first fall, he would need to win both remaining falls. If he won the second by driving her forever away, he would have no chance to seduce her in the third period. So he had to do it carefully, in such a way as to set up for his next turn. Meanwhile the actor. Handy, unaware of this back ground, should be quite ready to accommodate her. “These things happen,” he said. “I still think you’re a great-looking woman.”

Deerie was pleased. She of course did not know what lay behind this day’s contact. “Well, you did lose the bet, and I didn’t make you run. So if you want to work out your penalty the way you suggested—“ Now it seemed that Tan and Handy had a conflict. Citizen Tan had no intention of having sex, but serf Handy was obviously interested. He was starting another erection. He set aside his finished drink and went quickly to a couch, where he could sit without his condition showing as clearly. Agape wondered how this kind of game proceeded when the sex occurred in the first period. Didn’t that put the female at a disadvantage for the second period, because the male was spent? But she realized that this would be the least of problems; the Game Computer would simply arrange for a sexual restorative to be given, and the man’s interest would be at its normal level. It would also be possible to adapt a new set of actors.

“No, I don’t care to be embarrassed again,” Handy was saying. “You got me all excited before, and then you left me standing in a crowd with my tower on display! Everyone knew I’d been stood up and not laid down. I’m afraid you are only setting me up to do it again.”

“Oh, no. Handy, no!” Deerie protested, following him to the couch. “That was an accident! Once the other people came in, I had to go, because I didn’t like it that public. But we can go to a privacy booth right now and do it. I promise I’ll make it up to you!”

She was doing very well! Handy’s erection was growing; he really did want her. But Citizen Tan needed to break this up. “I’ll tell you what: let it go for now, and if you’re still interested in three hours, then I’ll know you mean it. Then I’ll do it.”

Nice ploy! In three hours it would be Tan’s onus again. “I don’t think I can wait,” Agape said. “He’s got me all excited.”

Indeed he had. Deerie was now fully committed to the encounter, and hardly needed Agape’s encouraging thoughts. “I can’t wait!” she said. She was standing beside the couch; she straightened her back and inhaled.

Handy’s face was a study, as he warred with the opposing voice in his mind. His body definitely wanted consummation, but the voice was telling him he wasn’t interested. Now was the time to strike. “I know he wants me,” Agape said. “But he is fearful of another scene like that of this morning. So I won’t wait; I will just climb up on him and do it!” Would this work?

It did. Deerie obeyed the thought without question. She practically threw herself on Handy, bearing him back lengthwise on the couch and coming down on top of him. Her mouth sought his for a hungry kiss as her groin rubbed against his.

But her lips found only mush in his. His erection was softening. He had been abruptly turned off! What had happened? “What’s the matter, honey?” Deerie asked, as upset as Agape, though perhaps for different reason. “Here we are all set to do it, and you’re leaving!”

“I remembered something,” he mumbled.

“My age!” she said, chargrined.

“No, not that! You’re a great woman! But I heard some where that your employer, he—”

“Citizen Tosme? All I do is massage his feet!”

“And more, when he asks.”

“Well, of course. But that’s universal; serfs are at the disposal of their Citizens. It doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“But what I heard—you may not know this—is that be cause of this. Citizen Tosme has reserved you for himself. Anyone else who uses you will be gelded.”

“What?” Deerie was appalled. “That can’t be true! I’ve had numerous—”

“Within the last month?”

“Well, no, actually, I’ve been busy with my exercise schedule. But—”

“And no one has approached you,” he concluded. “Now we know why. I was foolish to—I mean, I just got carried away, and—“ Deerie was completely flustered, and Agape could not get through to her at all. The charge was surely a lie, that Handy would conveniently discover in three hours, but meanwhile he had the planet’s best excuse to avoid contact. Deerie her self was all too much afraid it was true; Citizens did that sort of thing when they chose. They did not like to share their sex objects with serfs. Tan had come up with a masterpiece of dissemblance that gave him the complete advantage for the moment.

Agape knew that she had lost her opportunity to win this fall; it would take more than three hours to get her actress settled down. She let Deerie disengage and seek solitude; there was nothing else to be done.

Except to prepare for the final session. Tan’s actor would come calling, and this time he would not be limited to words. He would be allowed to coerce or even rape her, and certainly Tan would encourage that. Tan’s vengeance was in the mak ing; Agape could have avoided it only by winning this second fall. She had failed, and now the score was even, and there would be hell to pay.

She decided that her best chance was to hide so that he couldn’t find her. Since she couldn’t leave the Commons without defaulting, she would have to hide by concealing her identity. It would also be better if she were in a crowd; he would be less likely to try rape among people. For one thing, she could scream, and other men would surely come to her rescue. Sex was all right, and could even become a deliberate show, but rape was considered a form of violence by most women and some men. In addition, she could fight. She could put a defensive strategy into Deerie’s mind, so that Deerie would understand what to do when the time came. By the time of the third period. Agape was well prepared. She had caused Deerie to take some dirt from a flower pot and go to a toilet stall, where she rubbed the dirt into her hair and face and torso. Thus she became darker and wilder, looking quite different in the mirror. Her hairstyle was changed too, now being plaited and plastered. It had taken some urging to get the woman to do this, but the persistent thought that Handy had turned angry and intended to humiliate her did the job.

Then Deerie went quietly to a darkened show chamber where a dull holo was being played. She sat on the floor in back and watched as if mesmerized. With luck, she would never be found, and both of them would be spared a horrible ordeal. She was there before the second period ended, so that when the onus changed and Tan/Handy started looking, there would be nothing to see.

But moments after the third period commenced, a shape loomed in the entrance to the chamber. It was Handy—and he seemed to know exactly where he was going and what he was looking for. He must have been watching her all along, anticipating this ploy of hers!

He paused long enough to let his eyes adjust to the gloom. Then he made his way toward her. Should she scream? But he might be searching all the chambers this way, trying to make her identify herself by reacting; she had better keep quiet and hope he passed on by. If he did, then she was on her way to winning.

He did not. His face was contorted; Agape could not guess what thoughts Tan had put into Handy’s mind, but it was evident that they had driven the man beyond reason. “I will scream!” Agape cried.

Deerie opened her mouth—but Handy’s hand clapped down on it, stifling her.

“I will bite!” Agape said. But already the man was pulling the woman over, coming down on her, crushing her; she was too disoriented to pay further attention to Agape’s thoughts.

But one thing Agape had put into her mind before paid off: Deerie’s knee came up, aiming for the man’s groin. The blow would have been devastating if ft had connected, a definite game winner. But it only struck his outer thigh; he had been on guard against it. Trust a man to know how to rape better than a woman knew how to defend against it! Handy pressed Deerie down flat on her back on the floor, his hand still stifling her, one of his knees wedged between her legs so that she could not clamp her legs together. Her effort to knee him had only put her leg out of position, giving him this opening. “I will strike him with my free hands!” Agape cried des perately. “I will poke out his eyes! I will hurt him until he stops!” But Deerie was beyond that; terrified, she was retreating into an emotional shell, becoming passive. In fact, she was close to losing consciousness.

“A message for you!” Handy gasped, evidently coached by persistent if meaningless (to him) thoughts. “I owe you this, alien mare!”

“Fight him! Fight him!” Agape cried. “Roll, struggle, bite/resist!”

But Deerie did not. The man positioned himself and began his thrust. The pain began—and Deerie passed out. There was screaming.

The screen went dark. The input from the actress had ended with her consciousness. Agape found herself gasping, her throat raw; she was the one screaming. She was also melting; her lower section was puddling on the floor. Truly, she had been violated.

She had lost the fall and the match, in the worst possible way. Citizen Tan had had his vengeance, on her personally and on Citizen Blue for opposing the Contrary Citizens Agape let go, dissolving the rest of the way. In a moment she too was unconscious.