Mind Games

Conditioned to acutely perceive another's emotional state, Klavik, security director of a massive world sustaining 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 alien syndicate. A pair of royal companions force themselves upon him during his sojourn in Eden, where his “sixth sense” enables him to fasten on a nervous official as a prime 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 them away, Klavik senses “nibblings” at the limbic fringes of his mind. and senses the presence of an alien exotic. Sly mental assaults persist until his charges are taken hostage. The ultimate confrontation erupts in a rapacious battle of wills.