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IT ~AS as though vocal paralysis had gripped them all Even Rik, with disbelief in his eyes, could only stare woodenly, first at Valona, then at Terens

Then cah and the silence was broken

Steen said, "I believe it Really! I said so all along I said the native was in Fife&039;s pay That shows you the kind of man Fife is He&039;d pay a native to-"

"That&039;s an infernal lie"

It wasn&039;t Fife who spoke, but the Town with passion -

Abel, who of them all seemed the least moved, said, "What is?"

Terens stared at hily, "What the Squire said I airl said? Is that a lie too?"

Terens wet his dry lips with the tip of his tongue "No, that&039;s true I am the psycho-prober" He hurried on "Don&039;t look at me like that, Lona I didn&039;t mean to hurt hiain

Fife said, "This is a sort of device I don&039;t know exactly what you&039;re planning, Abel, but it&039;s impossible on the face of it that this criminal could have included this particular crime in his repertoire It&039;s definite that only a Great Squire could have had the necessary knowledge and facilities Or are you anxious to take yourfor a false confession?"

Terens, hands tightly clasped, leaned forward in his seat "I don&039;t take Trantorian nored him

Junz was the last to come to himself For minutes, he could not adjust to the fact that the Townman was not really in the sarounds, that he could see hie form, no more real actually than was Fife, enty rip him by the shoulder, speak to him alone, but he couldn&039;t He said, "There&039;s no point in arguing before we hear the man Let&039;s have the details If he is the psycho-prober, we need the details badly If he isn&039;t, the details he&039;ll try to give us will prove it"

"If you want to knohat happened," cried Terens, "I&039;ll tell you Holding it back won&039;t do er It&039;s Sark or Trantor after all, so to Space with it This will at least give s into the open"

He pointed at Fife in scorn "There&039;s a Great Squire Only a Great Squire, says this Great Squire, can have the knowledge or the facilities to do what the psycho-prober did He believes it, too But what does he know? What do any of the Sarkites know?

"They don&039;t run the governet the papers, they make the papers, they file the papers And it&039;s the papers that run Sark Sure, most of us are too beaten even to whimper, but do you knoe could do if anted to, even under the noses of our damned Squires? Well, you see what I&039;ve done

"I was teo Part ofa little to find it because the listed traffic er is a Sarkite He had the title but I did the actual work My name would be found in the special section headed Native Personnel No Sarkite would have dirtied his eyes looking there

"When the local ISB sent the Spatio-analyst&039;s estion that we e I passed on as safe This matter of the destruction of Florina was not passed on

"I arranged to meet the Spatio-analyst at a small suburban port I could do that easily All the wires and strings that ran Sark were at er tips I was in the Civil Service, remember A Great Squire anted to do what I did, couldn&039;t, unless he ordered some Florinian to do it for him I could do it without anyone&039;s help So e and facility

"I met the Spatio-analyst, kept him away from both Sark and the ISB I squeezed asthat inforainst Sark"

Words were forced out of Fife "You sent those first letters?"

"I sent those first letters, Great Squire," said Terens calh of the kyrt lands into my own hands to make a deal with Trantor on my terms and drive you off the planet"

"You were mad"

"Maybe Anyway, it didn&039;t work I had told the Spatio-analyst I was the Squire of Fife I had to, because he knew that Fife was the biggest ht I was Fife, he illing to talk openly It ht Fife was anxious to do whatever was best for Florina

"Unfortunately, he was more impatient than I was He insisted that every day lost was a calas with Sark needed ti else I found it difficult to control hiet one I had seen it used in hospitals I knew soh

"I set the probe to wipe out the anxiety from the surface layers of his mind That&039;s a simple operation I still don&039;t knohat happened I think the anxiety must have run deeper, very deep, and the probe auto outwith it I was left with aon my handsintently, said sadly, "You shouldn&039;t have interfered with me, Townman, but I kno you must have felt"

"Yes," said Terens, "you&039;ve lived on the planet You know about patrollers and Squires and the difference between Lower City and Upper City"

He took up the current of his story again "So there I ith the Spatio-analyst completely helpless I couldn&039;t let hiht trace his identity I couldn&039;t kill him I felt sure his e, to say nothing of the fact that killing hiood will of Trantor and the ISB, which I would eventually need Besides, in those days, I was incapable of killing

"I arranged to be transferred to Florina as Towned papers I arranged to have him found, I picked Valona to take care of hier thereafter except for that one time with the doctor Then I had to enter the power plants of Upper City That was not iineers were Sarkites but the janitors were Florinian On Sark I learned enough about power mechanics to kno to short a power line It took me three days to find the proper time for it After that, I could h, that the doctor kept duplicate records in both halves of his office I wish I had"

Terens could see Fife&039;s chronoo-it seeain Now you have the whole story"

"No," said Junz, "we have not What are the details of the Spatio-analyst&039;s story of planetary destruction?"

"Do you think I understood the details of what he had to say? It was some sort of-pardon me, Rik-madness"

"It wasn&039;t," blazed Elk "It couldn&039;t have been"

"The Spatio-analyst had a ship," said Junz "Where is it?"

"On the scrap heap long ago," said Terens "An order scrapping it was sent out My superior signed it A Sarldte never reads papers, of course It was scrapped without question"

"And Elk&039;s papers? You said he showed you papers!"

"Surrender that man to us," said Fife suddenly, "and we&039;ll find out what he knows"

"No," said Junz "His first cried the s to us"

Abel said, "Junz is correct"

Terens said, "Now look here I don&039;t say a ithout safeguards I knohere Rik&039;s papers are They&039;re where no Sarkite or Trantorian will ever find theree that I&039;ee Whatever I did was out of patriotisard for the needs of my planet A Sarkite or a Trantorian may claim to be patriotic; why not a Florinian as well?"

"The Aiven over to the ISB I assure you that you will not be turned over to Sark For your treatuarantee the result, but if you co-operate with us now, it will count in your favor"

Terens looked searchingly at Junz Then he said, "I&039;ll taketo the Spatio-analyst, Florina&039;s sun is in the pre-nova stage"

"What!" The exclamation or its equivalent came from all but Valona

"It&039;s about to explode and go boom," said Terens sardonically "And when that happens all of Florina will go poof, like a mouthful of tobacco smoke"

Abel said, "I&039;m no Spatio-analyst, but I have heard that there is no way of predicting when a star will explode"

"That&039;s true Until now, anyway Did Elk explain what made him think so?" asked Junz

"I suppose his papers will show that All I can remember is about the carbon current"

"What?"

"He kept saying, &039;The carbon current of space The carbon current of space&039; That, and the words &039;catalytic effect&039; There it is

Steen giggled Fife frowned Junz stared

Then Junz ht back" He stepped out of the limits of the receptor cube and vanished

He was back in fifteen minutes

Junz looked about in bewilderment when he returned Only Abel and Fife were present

He said, "Where-"

Abel broke in instantly "We have been waiting for you, Dr Junz The Spatio-analyst and the girl are on their way to the Embassy The conference is ended"

"Ended! Great Galaxy, we have only begun I&039;ve got to explain the possibilities of nova formation"

Abel shifted uneasily in his seat "It is not necessary to do that, Doctor"

"It is very necessary It is essential Give me five minutes"

"Let hi