Where? With whom?

He pushed the thoughts from his mind, the questions, unanswered and
perhaps unanswerable. In spite of the apparent bleakness of the future, he
had no desire to die, and there was the possibility that too much brooding
of that kind would evoke a subconscious reaction that could slow him down
or cause a wrong decision at a vital moment. A feeling of futility could
operate to bring on his death in spite of his conscious determination to
win the coming battle with the Nipe.

The Nipe was his first duty. When that job was finished, he would consider
the problem of himself. Just because he could not now see the answer to
that problem did not mean that no answer existed.

* * * * *

He suddenly realized that he was hungry. He had been walking through
Memorial Park, past the museum, an old, worn edifice that was still called
the Missouri Pacific Building. There was a small restaurant only a block
away. He reached into his pocket and took out the few coins that were
there. Not much, but enough to buy a sandwich and a glass of milk. Because
of the trust fund that had been set up when he had started the treatment
at the Neurophysics Institute, he was already well off, but he didn't have
much cash. What good was cash in the Institute, where everything was
provided?

He stopped at a news-vendor, dropped in a coin, and waited for the
reproducing mechanism to turn out a fresh paper. Then he took the folded
sheets and went on to the restaurant.

He rarely read a news-sheet. Mostly, his information about the world that
existed outside the walls of the Institute came from the televised
newscasts. But, occasionally, he liked to read the small, relatively
unimportant little stories about people who had done small, relatively
unimportant things--stories that didn't appear in the headlines or on the
newscasts.

The last important news story had come two nights before, when the Nipe
had robbed an optical products company in Miami. The camera had shown the
shop on the screen. Whatever had been used to blow open the door of the
vault had been more effective than necessary. It had taken the whole front
door of the shop and both windows, too. The bent and twisted paraglass
that had lain on the pavement showed how much force had been applied from
within.

And yet, the results were not that of an explosion. It was more as though
some tremendous force had _pushed_ outward from within. It