āYouāre never going to have to worry about Tarragon again. Iāll take care of that.ā
āSo naive, Eric. Youāre so wonderful and puzzling and handsome and enigmatic, and so naive. Tarragon will find us. Heāll always find us. Somehow weāve slipped out of his grasp, but only for a moment.ā
āItās a big world,ā Eric countered. āAnd thereās always the satellite colonies on Luna, and Ganymede, and Titan.ā
āIt doesnāt matter,ā she said softly. āHeāll find me. Itās his job.ā
āHang his job and him with it! Not if you love me.ā
āItās not possible for me to love you, but I do.ā
They stepped clear of the nave and found seats on an empty bench. Other tourists wandered in respectful silence through the immense chamber. Their eyes were aimed upward. A few listened and nodded in contentment to the sounds of the choir.
āWhen you talk like that," Eric admonished her, āyou sound like Tarragon himself. Whatās your relationship to him, anyway? I thought he was some kind of mob chieftain, and later that he worked for one.ā
āThere arenāt such things anymore.ā Lisa told him. āThe Colligatarch makes them impossible.ā
āThere are still rumors," Eric insisted. He found that he couldnāt meet her gaze when he asked the next question. āAre you some rich politicianās or corporation executiveās mistress?ā
āNo.ā There was an amused smile on her face, but she wasnāt laughing. āTarragon does work for the government, but not in an executive capacity. Heās kind of a field supervisor, a troubleshooter for a very important ongoing project.ā
Eric frowned. āThen whatās his connection with you? Are you involved in this project somehow?"
Her left hand reached up to gently caress his face. āPoor sweet, mysterious Eric, I do love you so. You donāt understand. I told you at the start that you wouldnāt understand." Her hand pulled away reluctantly.
āEric, I am the project. And I canāt love you because I was designed not to.ā
His thoughts tumbled wildly over one another, preconceptions shattering like thin glass. āYouāre not making any sense, Lisa. Okay, so youāre involved with some kind of government project. I can accept that. You say that youāre a designer?ā
āEric, please, listen to me. Donāt make this any harder for me than it is. I am the project. Iām not a designer. I am ā¦ was ā¦ designed. Iām a lure, Eric.ā
āA lure?ā He gaped at her, wisdom at a dead-end.
āYou know what a lure is. A little wiggly thing that fits on the end of a fishing line. Iāve been constructed with great care. Iām told only the best bioengineers in the world assisted with my design. It was a difficult thing to accomplish. Standards of beauty differ from one part of the world to the other, and I had to appeal to men from every continent.ā
āI donāt doubt that you would,ā he whispered.
āListen to me! Eric, Iām an artison, an artificial person. Iām like Topsy, Eric.ā She laughed nervously. āI was just growed.ā
Quietly he sat next to her, feeling her warmth, knowing her goodness, sensing her love and not wanting to believe her. But she spoke with too much assurance.
He had to take her at her word. There was no conceivable reason why she would manufacture such an incredible lie, not now, not safely clear of Tarragonās clutches. He could look inside her and not be able to discover the truth. Only a molecular biologist could do that.
Inside as well as on the outside, Lisa Tambor was perfectly human. Too perfectly. There was nothing to distinguish her from a normally conceived human being other than certain special talents or abilities her designers might have built into her. Talents like the ability to lure, for example.
A brief glance into a passing car on a street in Phoenix had disrupted his entire life and driven him several times to the verge of death. Yes, he could well believe she was a lure.
Her fingers twisted against each other on her lap. āThere are certain people that WOSA, the World Space Authority, needs. Not just scientists. Iām told, but particular mental types required to provide proper population balance on Garden and Eden, the GATE colonies. Iāve been told that I was designed expressly to appeal to these mental types. They have an irresistible desire to fall helplessly in love with me.ā Her smile was twisted.
āItās a kind of test, falling in love with me. How did you think people for Eden and Garden were selected, Eric?ā
āThe lotteries,ā he mumbled weakly. āEverybody has a chance to be ā¦ā
Her faugh was kind even as it was tinged with sadness. āLotteries! Do you really think WOSA would choose the people intended to insure mankindās survival by populating the only two extra-solar colonies by mere chance? Oh, a few are chosen that way through the lotteries to keep people like statisticians from getting too curious about the procedures, but when WOSA locates a certain type they want to recruit, they put him in close proximity to me. I have several male counterparts, by the way, and there are other female lures at work. If the subject responds correctly to my presence, they are recruited.ā
āHow could anyone not respond to you?ā Eric told her.
āYouāre prejudiced. Itās a carefully chosen combination of visual excitants, pheromones, and other characteristics beyond my comprehension. I canāt explain it all. Iām not a scientist. I donāt know how I produce the effects in men that I do, only that it happens." She went silent then and they listened together, each lost in private thoughts. Eric was thankful for the occasional off-key notes the choir produced. They were necessary reminders of reality.
Finally he looked back at her. āIt doesnāt matter. Nothing matters so long as you love me.ā
āI do love you,ā she told him, fighting back fresh tears. āThatās not built into my makeup, but I do. I donāt understand it, but I do. And you canāt love me!ā
He took both her hands in his. āStop telling me what I can and cannot do, whatās possible and whatās not.ā¦
āBut donāt you see, Eric? Thatās why Tarragon and the bureau are so upset. Youāre not supposed to love me. Youāre a stranger off the streets, an accident, an anomaly. You donāt fit the mental profile.ā
āTarragonās told you all this, hasnāt he?ā She nodded. āI donāt doubt that Iām a surprise to them, but how do they know I donāt fit their damn profile? They havenāt tested me.ā
āBut they have, Eric. Tarragon told me. When this began, when you started pursuing me, they went into the employee data bank at your company. They studied all your employment and subsequent updating tests. None of it fits, Eric. Nothing matches properly. If there were even a few parameters you tested within, Tarragon would have treated you differently. Of course, you wouldnāt have been allowed to stay with me, but you might have been recruited.ā
āThen their parameters are wrong,ā Eric told her, ābecause itās an unarguable fact that I am in love with you. Obviously, theyāve slipped up. Maybe their parameters arenāt exact.ā
āAnd what if they arenāt? What if they have made a mistake and they decided to recruit you, to send you?ā
āTarragon wants to send me someplace, all right, but it isnāt Garden or Eden.ā The paradise worlds, he thought idly. No taxes, no crushing burden of day-to-day jobs. It was something everyone dreamed of, everyone aspired to.
Well, he didnāt. Not anymore.
āIt wouldnāt make any difference, Lisa. You should know that. Because they wouldnāt let me take you with me.ā
āNo, they wouldnāt let us go together, Eric. My work is here. The work I was designed for.ā
He shook her forcefully. āStop that! I canāt think of you that way, as a bunch of figures and calculations on some engineerās designing screen. Youāre not a machine.ā
āI am a machine, Eric. An organic machine. We all are. My specifications are just a little more rigorous, a little more precise than yours. I was built up molecule by molecule, Eric, strand by strand, just like the bench weāre sitting on, like the dome arching over the choir. A Christopher Wren of biology drew me up on a terminal, Eric, and organic chemists watched my growth.
āIām not bitter about it. Iām resigned to it. I donāt feel any less human than anyone else in this chamber, or for that matter, any more human. I donāt feel bitter about all the nice men who fell in love with me, were told the truth, and went out to the colonies. Once things were explained to them, they fell out of love with me very quickly.ā Her expression was suddenly desperate.
He hastened to reassure her. āIām not falling out of love with you, Lisa. Not even a little. I donāt give a damn what you areārobot, android, or artison. What you are is what you are, Lisa, and what you are is the woman I love.ā She didnāt try to stop the tears this time, sobbed against him. āIām not bitter about it,ā she insisted. āYouāve got to believe that Iām not bitter about it None of us has any real control over our own destiny. We each do the best we can with what life deals us. I do my job, the job I was designed to do.ā
āYou were designed to love me,ā he told her gently.
āEric, theyāll find us and take you away from me.ā A few people turned to stare, looked away when they met Ericās eyes. āTheyāll take you away and ship you off to Eden or Garden, or worse.ā
āTheyāll do nothing of the kind to me. I told you nothing was going to separate us again."
She pulled back, stared hard at him. āHavenāt you been listening to me? Havenāt you heard anything that Iāve said?ā