Page:World Without Men (HT osu.32435053364535).pdf/171

Cordelia became silent, alarmed and astonished at the trend of her speech. The words had spilled themselves from her brain without conscious thought, and they did not even represent her true attitude. She was a loyal member of the State, a trusted government scientist, and never in her life had she voiced or even entertained ideas of such a treasonable nature, nor did she even believe what she had just said. The words had tumbled from some dark region beyond consciousness, uncontrollably, as if generated by some new irrational twist in her brain. Hysteria, she thought, suddenly afraid. The male child had started it. Test four-six-five: the pink specimen in the plastic case. The Mistress had been right, and the syndrome was real. Already hysteria was insidiously affecting her judgment, injecting unreason into her thoughts, introducing an element of unpredictability into her reactions.

She saw her diagnosis confirmed in the hard set of the Mistress's eyes and in the restrained alarm of her colleagues. She had confirmed, by her words, everything that the Mistress had said, and it was too late now to retract or apologize. The inevitable would happen: she would be taken away to a psychoneural center and subjected to deep hypnosis to rid her mind of the distortion that had revealed itself so clearly. In time she would be transferred to a new post in a new city. And test four-six-five would be destroyed anyway.

She had risked her future for nothing.

"I think," said the Mistress, "that you had better come with me, Cordelia. Meanwhile, destroy test four-six-five!"

After Cordelia and the Mistress had gone, the cytologists in the laboratory talked among themselves. The conversation bore multiple symptoms of shock, alarm, embarrassment and self-righteousness. Only Koralin had nothing to say; she was