obvious."
"What was?" Burris said.
Malone shrugged. "I thought you'd been keeping me on vacation becauseyour mind was being changed," he said. "Now I can see you were doingit of your own free will."
"Yes," Sir Lewis said. "But how did you know you'd find us _here_,Malone?"
There was a shadow in the room, but not a visible one. Malone felt thechill of sudden danger. Whatever was going to happen, he realized, hewould not be around for the finish. He, Kenneth Joseph Malone, thecuddly, semi-intrepid FBI Agent he had always known and loved, wouldnever get out of this deadly situation. If he lived, he would be sochanged that--
He didn't even want to think about it.
"What sort of logic," Sir Lewis was saying, "led you to the beliefthat we would all be here, in Andrew's house?"
Malone forced his mind to consider the question. "Well," he began, "itisn't exactly logic, I guess."
Luba smiled at him. He felt a little reassured, but not much. "Youshould have phrased that differently," she said. "It's: 'It isn'texactly logic. I guess.'"
"Not guess," Sir Lewis said. "You know. Prescience, Malone. Yourprecognitive faculty."
"All right," Malone said. "All right. So what?"
"Take it easy," Burris put in. "Relax, Malone. Everything's going tobe all right."
Sir Lewis waved a hand negligently. "Let's continue," he said. "Tellme, Malone: if you were a mathematics professor, teaching a course incalculus, how would you grade a paper that had all the answers butdidn't show the work?"
"I never took calculus," Malone said. "But I imagine I'd flunk him."
"Why?" Sir Lewis said.
"Because if he can't back up his answer," Malone said slowly, "thenit's no better than a layman's guess. He has to give reasons for hisanswers; otherwise nobody else can understand him."
"Fine," Sir Lewis said. "Perfectly fine. Now--" he puffed at hispipe--"can you give me a logical reason for arriving at the decisionyou made a few hours ago?"
The danger was coming closer, Malone realized. He didn't know what itwas or how to guard himself against it. All he could do was answer,and play for time.
"While I was driving up here," he said, "I sent you a message. I toldyou what I knew and what I believed about the whole world picture asit stands now. I don't know if you received it, but I--"
Luba spoke without the trace of a smile. "You mean you didn't know?"she said. "You didn't know I was answering you?"
That was the first pebble of the avalanche, Malone knew suddenly--theavalanche that was somehow going to destroy him. "You forced yourthoughts into my mind, then," he said as coolly as he could. "Just asyou forced decision on the rest of society."
"Now, dammit, Malone!" Burris said suddenly. "You know those burststake a lot of energy, and only last for a fraction of a second!"
Malone blinked. "Then you ... didn't--"
_Of course I didn't force anything on you, Kenneth. I can't. Not allthe power of the entire PRS could force anything through your shield.But you opened it to me._
It was Luba's mental "voice." Malone opened his mouth, shut it andthen, belatedly, snapped shut the channel through which he'd contactedher. Luba gave him a wry look, but said nothing. "You mean I'm atelepath?" Malone asked weakly.
"Certainly," Sir Lewis snapped. "At the moment, you can only pick upLuba--but you are certainly capable of picking up anyone, eventually.Just as you learned to teleport, you can learn to be a telepath.You--"
The room was whirling, but Malone tried to keep his mind steady. "Waita minute," he said. "If you received what I sent, then you know I'vegot a question to ask."
There was a little silence.
Finally Sir Lewis looked up. "You want to know why you felt we--thePRS--were innocent of the crimes you want to charge us with. Verywell." He paused. "We have wrecked civilization: granted. We couldhave done it more smoothly: granted."
"Then--"
Sir Lewis' face was serious and steady. Malone tensed.
"Malone," Sir Lewis said, "do you think you're the only one with amental shield?"
Malone shook his head. "I guess stress--fixity of mind orpurpose--could develop it in anyone," he said. "At least, in somepeople."
"Very well," Sir Lewis said. "Now, among the various people of theworld who have, through one necessity or another, managed to developsuch shields--"
Burris broke in impatiently. His words rang, and then echoed in theold house.
"Some fool," he said flatly, "was going to start the Last War."
* * * * *
"So you had to stop it," Malone said after a long second. "But I stilldon't see--"
"Of course you don't," Sir Lewis said. "But you've got to understandwhy you don't see it first."
"Because I'm stupid," Malone said.
Luba was shaking her head. Malone turned to face her. "Not stupid,"she said. "But some people, Kenneth, have certain talents. Othershave--other talents. There's no way of equating these talents; all areuseful, each performs a different function."
"And my talent," Malone said, "is stupidity. But--"
She lit a cigarette daintily. "Not at all," she said. "You've done areally tremendous job, Kenneth. I was trained ever since I was a babyto use my psionic abilities--the PRS has known how to train childrenin that line ever since 1970. Only Mike Fueyo developed a system forinstruction independently; the boy was, and is, a genius, as you'venoticed."
"Agreed," Malone said. "But--"
"You, however," Luba said, "have the distinction of being the firsthuman being who has, as an adult, achieved his full powers withoutchildhood training. In addition, you're the only human being who hasever developed to the extent you have--in precognition, too."
She puffed on the cigarette. Malone waited.
"But what you don't have," she said at last, very carefully, "is theability to reason out the steps you've taken, after you've reached theproper conclusion."
"Like the calculus student," Malone said. "I flunk." Something insidehim grated over the marrow in his bones. It was as though someone haddecided that the best cure for worry was coarse emery in the joints,and he, Kenneth J. Malone, had been picked for the first experiment.
"You're not flunking," Luba said. "You're a very long way fromflunking, Kenneth."
Burris cleared his throat suddenly. Malone turned to him. The Head ofthe FBI stuck an unlighted cigar into his mouth, chewed it a little,and then said: "Malone, we've been keeping tabs on you. Your shieldwas unbreakable--but we have been able to reach the minds of peopleyou've talked to: Mike Sands, Primo Palveri, and so on. And HerMajesty, of course: you opened up a gap in your shield to talk to her,and you haven't closed it down. Until you started broadcasting here onthe way up, naturally."
"All right," Malone said, waiting with as much patience as possiblefor the point.
"I tried to take you off the case," Burris went on, "because Sir Lewisand the others felt you were getting too close to the truth. Which youwere, Malone, which you were." He lit his cigar and looked obscurelypleased. "But they didn't know how you'd take it," he said. "They ...we ... felt that a man who hadn't been trained since childhood toaccept the extrasensory abilities of the human mind couldn't possiblylearn to accept the reality of the job the PRS has to do."
"I still don't," Malone said. "I'm stupid. I flunk. Remember?"
"Now, now," Burris said helplessly. "Not at all, Malone. But we wereworried. I lied to you about those three spies--I put the drug in thewater-cooler. I tried to keep you from learning the Fueyo method ofteleportation. I didn't want you to learn that you were telepathic."
"But I did," Malone said, "And what does that make me?"
"That," Sir Lewis cut in, "is what we're attempting to find out."
Malone felt suitably crushed, but he wasn't sure by what. "I've gotsome questions," he said after a second. "I want to know threethings."
"Go ahead," Sir Lewis said.
"One:" Malone said, "How come Her Majesty and the other nutty
telepaths didn't spot you? Two: How come you sent me out on these jobswhen you were afraid I was dangerous? And three: What was it