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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... once again he was pumping at a dry well. Other than general anxiety over being questioned by someone in authority, the middle-aged technician's emotional tenor fell within nominal parameters. “Who instructed you to leave the arsenal ...
... once again led him into a blind cul-de-sac. Yet a nagging suspicion remained that some higher-up within Kraan's fractionated government had engineered the outrageous theft, then heaped over it a tangled skein of incidentalia no amount ...
... once His Omnipotence has spoken highly of you, praised your ability, your devotion to the Crown. I therefore have no qualms about where your loyalties lie. If, as I suspect, a Kaolin coup is in the making we must learn of it immediately ...
... Once we learn how treasonous Kaolin nobles used the odious pleasure world to effect their regicide, well . . .” Kurani left the somber threat unfinished. “Forgive my presumption, sir, but we agreed to let the dust settle before going ...
... once his father's favorite haunt. “Your Royal Highness,” assured Kurani, “need 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 ...