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
Results 1-5 of 52
... Never thought about it that way. Me and the others, we kicked the whole crazy business around amongst ourselves. What happened to the thorium is . . . No one has a glimmer.” His enhanced sense of esthesis reconfirmed the technician's ...
... never ceased asking himself the detective's immemorial question: Who stood most to gain by the murder of Kraan's revered sovereign? In each instance, a tentative answer formed in his mind of its own volition, and in each instance was ...
... never by the use of force. A quiet, behind-the-scenes investigation without coercion or the use of arms — any variety of blatant inquisitory methods — is the single course that will prove effective. I ask your pardon for being obstinate ...
... never pose that question in your own hall. But shouldn't you be comforting your mother?” “The medic gave her something.” Kewart pulled the library doors closed behind him. “She's asleep.” He nodded politely to Klavik, a stranger. “I ...
... never get around to telling me?” “Royalty!” There was high drama in Buford's declaration. “The heir apparent of those stiff-necked barbarians has come in person, along with no less a personage than their chief of state, and a huge ...