If you purchased this book without a cover， you<br >should be aware that this book is stolen property. It<br >was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the pub-<br >lisher and neither the author nor the publisher has<br >received any payment for this "stripped book."<br > This is a work of fiction. The characters， incidents，<br > and dialogues are products of the author s imagina-<br > tion and are not to be construed as real. Any resem-<br > blance to actual events or persons， living or dead， is<br > entirely coincidental.<br >Paperbacks A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers<br > 10 East 53rd Street， New York， N.Y. 10022<br > Copyright ~ 1991 by HarperCollinsPublishers<br > All rights reserved. No part of this book may be<br > used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever with-<br > out written permission of the publisher， except in<br > the case of brief quotations embodied in critical arti-<br > cles and reviews. For information address<br > HarperCollinsPublishers， 10 East 53rd Street，<br > New York. N.Y. 10022.<br >Cover illustration by Rick Nemo<br >First printing: August 1991<br >Printed in the United States of America<br >HarperPaperbacks and colophon are trademarks of<br >HarperCollinsPublisbers<br >0 Prologue<br >TrI~ CALLED mr~ ROD.<br > He did not understand that the name was derived<br >from the name of the Rand Corporation project that had<br >created him. Indeed， it could not be said that he under.<br >stood anything at all， at least， not in the human sense<br > Rod was not human.<br > Not yet.<br > Vision check， a voice said in his head. Focus.<br > Grid lines superimposed themselves on his unblink-<br >ing view of Lab One. The words DIAGNOSTIC MODE:<br >VISUAL winked on at the periphery of his vision， not<br >for his benefit but for that of the human technicians<br >who were now seeing through his camera eyes. A man s<br >face appeared for a moment， close up and distorted by<br >the wide-angle effect. A hand blotted out the lab pan-<br >orama as the technician made a minute adjustment to<br > the locking ring behind Rod s left eye. The image<br > blurred， then sharpened.<br > "Focus okay，" his own voice replied as face and<br > hand pulled back. It was baritone， male， and perfectly<br >human.<br ><br >