Free Sight of Proteus by Charles Sheffield

them at the hospital. They are a crucial part of the description of the work I've been doing. Make sure they get into the right hands."
    He broke off suddenly and swung the light back along the wall of the pit. "I think it's coming back. Here, I'm going to try and throw this spool up to you. Step nearer to the edge. I'm not sure how well I can throw from this position."
    Capman shone the flashlight on the wall of the pit, to give a diffuse light above, and threw a small spool awkwardly upward. Reaching far out, almost to the point of over-balancing, Larsen managed to make a snatching, one-handed catch. Capman sighed with relief and pain, and sank back to the dirt floor. They could hear a deep grunting, and a scrambling noise was approaching along the pit tunnel. While they watched in horror, Capman remained astonishingly cool.
    "Whatever happens here," he said. "Remember that your first duty is to get those records back to the hospital. Don't waste any time."
    He turned the flashlight again into the pit. In the uncertain light, Wolf and Larsen had an impression of an enormous simian shape, moving towards Capman. Before they could gain a clear view of it, the light fell to the floor and was suddenly extinguished. There was a grinding noise and a bubbling cough from the pit, then silence.
    Wolf and Larsen were seized suddenly with an understanding of their own defenseless position. Without another word or a wasted moment, both men turned and sped back through the tunnel. They picked up guns, lights and tracer and continued at full speed through the dark ways of Old City. Not until they were once more in the elevator, rising through Central Hospital to Capman's laboratory, did Larsen finally break the silence.
    "I don't know what Capman did in that vault, but whatever it was he paid for it tonight."
    Wolf, unusually subdued, could do no more than nod agreement and add, "Requiescat In Pace."
    They went at once to the Transplant Department, where Morris received the precious spool of microfilm. At Wolf's urging, he agreed to have a team assigned to an immediate analysis of it, while they told him of the strange circumstance of its passage to them.

Chapter 8
    An hour before sunrise, Wolf and Larsen were breakfasting in the visitor's section on the highest floor of Central Hospital. At Morris' insistence they had taken three hours of deep-sleep and spent another hour in programmed stress release. Both men were feeling rested and fit and had accepted a substantial meal from the robo-servers. Before they had finished, Morris came bustling in again. It was clear from his appearance that he had not slept, but his eyes were bright with excitement. He waved a handful of listings, and sat down opposite them.
    "Fantastic," he said. "There's no other word for it. It will take us years to get all the details on this. Capman has gone further in form-change than we dreamed. Every form in that underground lab explores new ground in form-change experiment."
    He began to leaf through the listings. "Here's an anaerobic form," he said. "It can breathe air, as usual, but if necessary it can also break down a variety of other chemicals for life support. It could operate under the sea, or in a vacuum, or almost anywhere. Here's another one, with a thick and insensitive epidermis—it should be very tolerant of extreme conditions of heat and radiation.
    "Then there's this one." Morris waved the listing excitedly. He was unable to remain seated, and began to pace up and down in front of the window, where a pale gleam of false dawn was appearing. "Look, he has a complete photosynthetic system, with chlorophyll pouches on his chest, arms and back. He could survive quite happily in a semi-dormant state on traces of minerals, water and carbon-dioxide. Or he can live quite well as a normal human form, eating normal food.
    "Here we have miniaturized forms, only ten inches high when fully adult. They have a normal life expectancy and a normal chromosome and