Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 158

roofless shack, its boards bleached and split by the desert wind.
"What is that shack?"
"The entrance to the underground rooms is to one side of it."
"Are there ground-computers down there?"
"Yes."
"Are any of the small ships ready to go?"
"They are all ready to go. They are mostly robot-controlled defense
ships."
"Is there one with pilot-control?"
"Yes. The one intended for Har Orry."
Ramarren kept close telepathic hold on the Shing's mind while Falk
ordered him to take them to the ship and show them the onboard
computers. Ken Kenyek at once obeyed. Falk-Ramarren had not entirely
expected him to: there were limits to mind-control just as there were to
normal hypnotic suggestion. The drive to self-preservation often resisted
even the strongest control, and sometimes shattered the whole attunement
when infringed upon. But the treason he was being forced to commit
apparently aroused no instinctive resistance in Ken Kenyek; he took them
into the starship and replied obediently to all Falk-Ramarren's questions,
then led them back to the decrepit hut and at command unlocked, with
physical and mental signals, the trapdoor in the sand near the door. They
entered the tunnel that was revealed. At each of the underground doors and
defenses and shields Ken Kenyek gave the proper signal or response, and
so brought them at last to attack-proof, cataclysm-proof, thief-proof rooms
far underground, where the automatic control guides and the course
computers were.
Over an hour had now passed since the moment in the aircar. Ken
Kenyek, assenting and submissive, reminding Falk at moments of poor
Estrel, stood harmlessly by—harmless so long as Ramarren kept total
control over his brain. The instant that control was relaxed, Ken Kenyek
would send a mindcall to Es Toch if he had the power, or trip some alarm,
and the other Shing and their toolmen would be here within a couple of
minutes. But Ramarren must relax that control: for he needed his mind to
think with. Falk did not know how to program a computer for the
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