uld I pull a raid at this stage, if I had to go through all that,
without knowing what the hell I was going to find down there?"

"Oh," Malone said.

"If those kids can just appear and disappear at will," Lynch said,
"I'm not going to pull a raid on them, and end up looking like a damn
fool, until I've got some way of making sure they're there when the
raid goes through."

Malone coughed gently. "Okay," he said at last. "Sorry."

"There's only one thing I want," Lynch said. "I want to be able to
move as soon as possible."

"Well, sure," Malone said apologetically.

"And that means I'm going to have to be informed," Lynch said. "I want
to know what's going on, as fast as possible."

Malone nodded gently. "Sure," he said. "I'll tell you everything that
happens--as soon as I know myself. But right now, I haven't got a
thing for you. All I have is a kind of theory, and it's pretty
screwy."

He stopped. Lynch looked up at him. "How screwy can it get?" he said.
"The facts are nutty enough."

"You have absolutely no idea," Malone assured him. "I'm not even
saying a word about this, not until I prove it out one way or another.
I'm not even thinking about it--not until it stops sounding so nutty
to me."

"Okay, Malone," Lynch said. "I can see a piece of it, if no more. The
Fueyo kid vanishes mysteriously--never mind all that about you getting
him out of the interrogation room by some kind of confidential method.
There isn't any confidential method. I know that better than you do."

"I had to say something, didn't I?" Malone asked apologetically.

"So the kid disappears," Lynch said, brushing Malone's question away
with a wave of his hand. "So now I hear all this stuff from Kettleman.
And it begins to add up. The kids can disappear somehow, and reappear
some place else. Walk through walls?" He shrugged. "How should I know?
But they can sure as hell do something like it."

"Something," Malone said. "Like I said, it sounds screwy."

"I don't like it," Lynch said.

Malone nodded. "Nobody likes it," he said. "But keep it under your
hat. I'll give you everything I have--whenever I have anything. And by
the way--"

"Yes?" Lynch said.

"Thanks for giving me and Kettleman a chance to talk," Malone said.
"Even if you had reasons of your own."

"Oh," Lynch said. "You mean the recording."

"I was a little suspicious," Malone said. "I didn't think you'd give
Kettleman to me without getting _something_ for yourself."