no
threats of force! Let this prisoner and the other convicts who
doubtless are lurking in nearby space beyond Earth's defense fields
know that _for every day_ their obscene threat against the high
officers of the Machine continues hundreds of malcontents who would
welcome them on Earth will be painfully executed! Let them--"

Pain doubled Menesee abruptly over the table before him. A savage,
compressing pain, very different from the fiery touch of the nerve
stimulators, which held him immobile, unable to cry out or draw
breath.

It relaxed almost as instantaneously as it had come on. Menesee
slumped back in his chair, shaken and choking, fighting down bitter
nausea. His eyes refocused painfully on Rainbolt, gray-faced but on
his feet, in the prisoner's area.

"You will find," Rainbolt was saying, "that Director Squires is dead.
And so, I'm very much afraid, is every other member of the upper
echelons whose heart was in no better condition than his. This was a
demonstration I had not intended to give you. But since it has been
given, it should serve as a reminder that while it is true we could
not force you directly to do as we wish, there are things we are
resolved not to tolerate."

Ojeda was whispering shakily near Menesee, "He controls his body to
the extent that he was able to bring on a heart attack in himself and
project it to all of us! He counted on his own superb physical
condition to pull him through it unharmed. _That_ is why he didn't
seem frightened when the administrator threatened him with a gun. Even
if the spokesman hadn't acted, that gun never would have been fired.

"Menesee, no precautions we could take will stop that monster from
killing us all whenever he finally chooses--simply by committing
suicide through an act of will!"

Spokesman Dorn's voice seemed to answer Ojeda.

"Director Squires," Dorn's voice said, still thinned by pain but oddly
triumphant, "became a victim of his own pointless vindictiveness. It
was a mistake which, I am certain, no member of the Machine will care
to repeat.

"Otherwise, this incident has merely served to confirm that the Mars
Convicts operate under definite limitations. They _could_ kill us but
can't afford to do it. If they are to thrive in space, they need
Earth, and Earth's resources. They are aware that if the Machine's
leadership dies, Earth will lapse into utter anarchy and turn its
tremendous weapons upon itself.

"The Mars Convicts could gain n