Randall Garrett

“ Van Ostrand went on, his voice soft and oily again, "we are all of the persuasion that there are more important things in life than money."
Nikki Varden had been basing her actions on the obvious fact that in order to get her to sign anything and get it through any of her big holding corporations, they would have to keep her definitely and indisputably alive and conscious. ”

“ Giles Jackson settled himself to his seat again and lit another cigarette.
I had listened silently all the time, and I figured I'd heard almost enough—but not quite. I kept hoping that Nikki would ask more questions.
She didn't have to. Van Ostrand was in an expansive mood. He had become more and more jubilant as the time approached, and his jubilance loosened his tongue.
"You see, my dear, we don't want to lose a secret which may be even more important than the mind controller—the secret of immortality. Because that's why he put his ship into that orbit ”

“ Nikki couldn't take it. "For the love of God!" she shouted finally. "Say something! Tell me what you want!"
Bob North started to open his yap and make the obvious remark, but Van Ostrand cut him off with a wave of his pudgy hand.
"Your father," he said, after removing the cigar from between his heavy lips, "is a very great man. Indeed, one might almost say, a genius."
"What's my father got to do with this?" Nikki asked with irritation. "My father's been dead for seventeen years."
Van Ostrand looked at his cigar-end, approved of the ash, and looked back up at the girl. "Only legally," he said. ”

“ She opened her mouth, closed it, then laughed. "You mean that all the time puss was walking around the house watching us—all the time he was sitting near the door—that was you watching out of those slitted green eyes?"
"Right. While my body was down in the basement, I was walking around up here, being a housecat. You can see why that isn't a machine to trust just anybody with." ”

“ He could have played the part to a T. The trouble with somebody who looks that much like the heavy is that your mind rejects the idea. You think to yourself, "I'll watch that guy because I don't trust him, but I doubt if he could really be as bad as he acts—nobody could." ”

“ The ship will come down, and we will have imm—"
"North!" the fat man bellowed.
Because Nikki had suddenly leaped to her feet and run toward the clock. She was trying to move the second hand with her head, since her hands were locked with magnetic cuffs. It didn't do any good; the steel hand went on; unperturbed.
Bob North grabbed her by the hair and jerked her to the floor. Giles Jackson was on his feet, his gun aimed at her head.
"No, Giles!" Van Ostrand snapped. Then, to the girl: "That was damnably stupid of you. In the first place, you might have been killed—accidentally. ”

“ In the second place, that clock is automatically corrected every minute. It wouldn't do you any good to push it to an incorrect time, because it would be readjusted at the end of the minute. Watch." He pointed. The hand was nearing twelve. ”