Awares by Piers Anthony Page A

turned the body over to Pauling, who promptly organized a spur of the moment duplicate tour to update the prior one. No one questioned him; Pauling remained a top official, and Kop remained, as far as the other Maggot agents knew, a top enemy agent. Elasa accompanied him as his personal secretary, as before, and Adela and Bunky came along too, unlisted. Plus one decorative plant, Venus. During the long flights they had frequent sex interspersed by discussion, while Bunky communed companionably with Venus. As a wether, a neutered sheep, Bunky had no interest in sex, which also protected him from Venus.
    “Now you know the Maggots are not going to accept this without objection,” Kop said. “When a number of agents fail to report, they will try to send clarifying directives, and when those fail, they will realize that something is wrong. There are two ways they may proceed: if they conclude that the human form is fundamentally unstable, so that transfer agents are subject to random elimination, they may conclude that this world is too awkward to process conveniently, and will bypass it and move on. In that event Earth will be spared, for now. But more likely they will be suspicious, and will send a Maggot to investigate physically. That would be mischief.”
    “I presume we can't simply lay an ambush and assassinate the Maggot when it arrives,” Elasa said. “How would they react to the death of a Maggot? Would they blow up the whole planet?”
    “And waste all that good meat?” Adela asked.
    “Wasting good meat is anathema,” Kop said. “They will either harvest Earth, or bypass it, because there is also the potential for a future harvest. But because a bypass represents a certain loss of productive energy and postponement of gratification, they are likely to investigate first. The Maggot's report will govern: proceed with the harvest, or bypass this world. But yes, you can't simply lay an ambush. The Maggot will have more mental power than a thousand local inhabitants, and all of them will be immediately under its sway. All of them will defend the Maggot to the death. In fact several will give up their lives, screaming, as it feeds on them. No living thing will get close without being taken over and serving the Maggot's purpose. It will soon know the situation, and make the decision.”
    “So if a Maggot lands, Earth is lost?” Elasa asked. “Since human hosts aren't unstable, and we would not be able to nullify any that the Maggot is directly controlling, if they have not been zeroed in.”
    “Correct. If a Maggot lands, Earth is surely lost. And I judge that to be the likely choice.” He lifted an eyebrow in tacit query. “Unless your Lamb or Plant have some other ploy available.”
    “We have Elasa,” Adela said.
    “Whose mind can't be read or taken over,” Kop agreed. “She could at least make an effort to take out the Maggot. But when it discovered that it could not control her, it would orient the living captives on her, and they would attack in a coordinated mass, heedless of losses. She would have to mow them down with a machine-gun, and probably would run out of bullets before they stopped coming. They would converge and tear her apart, literally.”
    “If I had a machine-gun,” Elasa said, “I would use it to mow the Maggot down.”
    “Good thought,” Kop agreed. “But meanwhile the captive folk would be throwing themselves between you and it, to take the bullets, and a number would be firing at you, aiming eyes and legs so as to disable you. Even well armed, your chances of killing a Maggot are remote. It is not a situation you should seek.”
    “Are you saying we can't stop the Maggot if it comes here?” Elasa asked.
    “I'm saying that killing it would be no easy task. It might be better to do what I attempted to do: nuke it. A missile fired from a safe distance might do it.”
    “But the other casualties!” Elasa protested.
    “This ain't beanbag,” Kop reminded her. “Anyway,