rinned faintly. "Well, we're good at doing that, aren't we?
Have you looked around for uh ... for McAllen's subject yet?"

"No. Felt Ollie should be present when we find out what's happened.
Incidentally, how did the meeting go?"

"You weren't tuned in?" Simms asked, surprised.

"No. Too busy setting things up for contact."

"Well"--Simms sat back in his chair--"I may say it was a regular bear
garden for a while, doctor. Psychology expressed itself as being
astounded, indignant, offended. In a word, they were hopping mad. I
kept out of it, though I admit I was startled when McAllen informed me
privately this morning of the five-year project he's been conducting
on the quiet. He was accused of crimes ranging ... oh, from the
clandestine to the inhumane. And, of course, Ollie was giving it back
as good as he got."

"Of course."

"His arguments," Simms went on, pursing his lips reflectively, "were
not without merit. That was recognized. Nobody enjoys the idea of
euthanasia as a security device. Many of us feel--I do--that it's
still preferable to the degree of brain-washing required to produce
significant alterations in a personality type of Chard's class."

"Ollie feels that, too," Fredericks said. "The upshot of the original
situation, as he saw it, was that Barney Chard had been a dead man
from the moment he got on the association's trail. Or a permanently
deformed personality."

Simms shook his head. "Not the last. We wouldn't have considered
attempting personality alteration in his case."

"Euthanasia then," Fredericks said. "Chard was too intelligent to be
thrown off the track, much too unscrupulous to be trusted under any
circumstances. So Ollie reported him dead."

* * * * *

The psychologist was silent for some seconds. "The point might be
this," he said suddenly. "After my talk with McAllen this morning, I
ran an extrapolation on the personality pattern defined for Chard five
years ago on the basis of his background. Results indicate he went
insane and suicided within a year."

"How reliable are those results?" Fredericks inquired absently.

"No more so than any other indication in individual psychology. But
they present a reasonable probability ... and not a very pleasant
one."

Fredericks said, "Oliver wasn't unaware of that as a possible outcome.
One reason he selected Base Eighteen for the experiment was to make
sure he couldn't interfere with the process, once