There were many such outcroppings in the woods, and almost always when there was a rise such as this, the other side was steep also, sometimes steeper, rockier. He stood on the ridge looking down the thirty feet of sparse growth and rocks, and twisted among them he could see the boy, his eyes open as if he were studying the pale, colorless sky. Mark didn't go down. He squatted several moments looking at the figure below, then turned and went back to camp, not rushing now.

"He bled to death," Barry said after they brought the body back to camp.

"They could have saved him," Mark said. He didn't look at Danny's brothers, who were all gray, waxy-looking, in shock. "They could have gone straight to him." He stood up. "Are we going down now?"

Barry nodded. He and Bob carried the body on a litter made from thin tree branches tied together. Mark led them to the edge of the woods and turned. "I'll go make sure the fire's all the way out," he said. He didn't wait for permission, but vanished among the trees almost instantly.

Barry put the surviving nine brothers in the hospital to be treated for shock. They never emerged, and no one ever asked about them.

The following morning Barry arrived in the lecture room before the class had assembled. Mark was already in his place at the rear of the room. Barry nodded to him, opened his notes, straightened his desk, and looked up again to find Mark still regarding him. His eyes were as bright as twin blue lakes covered with a layer of ice, Barry thought.

"Well?" he asked finally when it seemed the locked stare would be maintained indefinitely.

Mark didn't look away. "There is no individual, there is only the community," he said clearly. "What is right for the community is right even unto death for the individual. There is no one, there is only the whole."

"Where did you hear that?" Barry demanded.

"I read it."

"Where did you get that book?"

"From your office. It's on one of the shelves."

"You're forbidden to enter my office!"

"It doesn't matter. I've already read everything in it." Mark stood up and his eyes glinted as the light changed in them. "That book is a lie," he said clearly. "They're all lies! I'm one. I'm an individual! I am one!"; He started for the door.

"Mark, wait a minute," Barry said. "Have you ever seen what happens to a strange ant when it falls into another ant colony?"

At the door Mark nodded. "But I'm not an ant," he said.

Chapter 23