Mind GamesConditioned to enhance an inborn ability to acutely perceive another's emotional state, Klavik, security director of a massive world ruled by the sole monarchy in neohuman interstellar society, investigates the ruler's assassination while on holiday in parsecs-distant Eden, a terraformed pleasure world operated by a distant syndicate peopled by alien exotics. A pair of royal companions force themselves upon Klavik during his sojourn in Eden, where his empathic perception “sixth sense” enables him to fasten on a nervous official as a prime suspect to interrogate, but is frustrated because his energies must be channeled toward protecting his illustrious companions. Eden's planetary director, Shatterhand, ushers the threesome into a “hall of mirrors” where nothing is as it seems. After feints and ploys designed to distract or frighten he and his charges away, Klavik senses “nibblings” at the limbic fringes of his mind, and intuits the the presence of an alien telepath. Sly mental assaults persist until his charges are taken hostage, and the ultimate confrontation erupts in a rapacious battle of wills. |
From inside the book
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... Doors stay shut if the computer doesn't like what it reads. Can't begin to guess how a stranger'd get inside.” Nor I, thought Klavik darkly. “You saw no one you failed to recognize?” The technician's brow creased. “Scuttlebutt says a ...
... doors rolled apart, exposing a wide, glassed-in hallway carpeted in muted tones of blue and gray. Clad in a sleeveless bumt-orange robe, Prime Minister Kurani stood in the hallway, feet apart, hairy, muscular forearms folded ...
... doors to close behind them. His timbrous bass voice edged with rancor, he said, “We've a major crisis to conted with, and learning you were out of your office gave me doubt. May I ask where you were?” “At the arsenal, Prime Minister. I ...
... doors closed automatically behind him. Sipping brandy, he eyed Klavik over the snifter's rim. “Well, the dismal affair is behind us. Time to get cracking.” “Agreed, sir.” “Drop the 'sir,'” urged the other testily, “when we're in private ...
... doors swung inward manually. “Thought I'd find you here, Prime Minister.” Poised in the doorway, a hand on either handle, stood the adolescent heir to Kraan's ancient throne. # The PM and Klavik rose together, and bowed low. “May I join ...