“We do not have it,” he said.

“We? No more I?”

“We,” Alaree said. And as he spoke, the leaves parted and another alien—Alaree’s very double—stepped out into the clearing.

Then I saw the helmet on the newcomer’s head, and realized that he was no double. He was Alaree, and the other alien was the stranger!

“I see you’re here already,” the alien I knew as Alaree said to the other. They were standing about ten feet apart, staring coldly at each other. I glanced at both of them quickly. They might have been identical twins.

“We are here,” the stranger said. “We have come to get you.”

I took a step backward, sensing that some incomprehensible drama was being played out here among these aliens.”

“What’s going on, Alaree?” I asked.

“We are having difficulties,” both of them said, as one.

Both of them.

I turned to the second alien. “What’s your name?”

“Alaree,” he said.

“Are you all named’ that?” I demanded.

“We are Alaree,” Alaree Two said.

“They are Alaree,” Alaree One said. “And I am Alaree. I.”

At that moment there was a disturbance in the shrubbery, and half a dozen more aliens stepped through and confronted Alarees One and Two.

“We are Alaree,” Alaree Two repeated exasperatingly. He made a sweeping gesture that embraced all seven of the aliens to my left, but pointedly excluded Alaree One at my right.

“Are we—you coming with we—us?” Alaree Two demanded. I heard the six others say something in approximately the same tone of voice, but since they weren’t wearing converters, their words were only scrambled nonsense to me.

Alaree One looked at me in pain, then back at his seven fellows. I saw an expression of sheer terror in the small creature’s eyes. He turned to me.

“I must go with them,” he said softly. He was quivering with fear.