Cliff shook his head slowly. “Your timing would have to be absolutely precise. A second or two off and…It’s very dangerous.”

“Dangerous yes, but impossible? No!”

Cliffs eyes were narrowed in deep concentration, and for a moment he started to nod, then suddenly he shook his head. “It’s a brilliant plan, except for one tiny item.”

“What?”

“Who’s going to perform these two simultaneous maneuvers with such perfect timing?”

Eric smiled, fully enjoying the fact that he had already anticipated this question. “If you’ll teach me a few fundamentals of minor surgery, I’ll take yours out, you take mine. Fair enough?”

Cliff sighed, the disappointment drawing the corners of his mouth down sharply. “And have you forgotten that we are implanted? Illegal removal of an implantation is a capital offense. As much as I hate this thing—” he touched the back of his neck in disgust, “how steady do you think my hands will be with the chip sending jolts of electricity into my brain every time I think about what we’re doing?”

He stood up, angry that he had let his hopes rise. “Steady hands! I’ll be lucky to stay on my feet. Sorry, Eric, but I’ve never operated from a prone position before.”

“Okay. Now you’ve come to my question.”

“Great!” Cliff grunted irritably, “and since the whole plan depends on that one question, why don’t we just wait until then to work it out.”

“I know, I know. But I know there’s a solution. I’m on the verge of it, but I need your help to break through.” He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Let me read something to you. This is from a book on positive thinking.”

“Come on, Eric! Face reality. We need more than positive thinking to come out of this.”

“Will you just listen?” Eric said patiently, smoothing the paper out across his knee.

Cliff sat back down on the bench wearily. “Why not?”

Eric took a breath and plunged in. “‘Man’s brain and nervous system is a remarkably engineered, interwoven system. Man is the only known creature with an imagination. A person’s imagination has a very direct and visible effect on his nervous system. Outside reality is not nearly as important in determining man’s reaction to things as what he thinks about that reality. A human being acts not so much according to what reality is as he does on the basis of how he perceives that reality. Or, to put it another way, his body reacts according to what he believes reality is.’”