Mind Games

Conditioned to enhance his inborn ability to acutely perceive another's emotional state, Klavik, the security director of the massive world Kraan ruled by the sole monarchy in neohuman interstellar society. He investigates the the sovereign's assassination while on holiday in parsecs-distant Eden, a terraformed pleasure world operated by a distant syndicate peopled by little-known alien exotics. The prince royal and prime minister 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 for interrogation, 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 presence of an alien telepath. Sly mental assaults persist until his charges are taken hostage, and the ultimate confrontation erupts in a rapacious, psychic battle of wills.