ident--

PEDERSON: You saw that three days ago! Must we go through it again?

COUNSELOR: We must and we shall! Due to the unnatural tenor of the case,
it is the opinion of the Council that these things must be fixed and
adjudged if we are to make a correct Disposition.

PEDERSON: (_wearily_): Yes, sir. Well, the fact is he seemed to want to
confide in me. Nothing strange in that! He realized he had lost, poor
guy, and he--

COUNSELOR: Mr. Pederson! No diversions, please. We'd simply like to hear
from your own lips what Beardsley told you. (Glances at his notes.) Is
it true that he said--his sole motive in this affair was to prove he
could conduct an investigation as efficiently as ECAIAC--_or any damned
machine_?

PEDERSON: (_hesitant, with a glance at Beardsley who sat remote and
vacuous_): Yes. He told me that.

COUNSELOR: Even to the point of committing a murder to prove it? And his
entire subsequent action was predicated upon that? We have extensive
reports here--from Mrs. Carmack, from Mandleco, from Jeff Arnold and
yourself. It is difficult to see how such a basically integrated and
well-functioning personality as Raoul Beardsley--

PEDERSON: (_angrily_): No. What you fail to see is the facade! What man
has stronger reason than the man who has lost his reason? It is the only
outlet for aggression, a devious fulfillment, it brings psychological
satisfactions which cannot be obtained in any other way--call it the
self-destructive impulse if you will. I doubt if Beardsley rationalized
this--but he had come to his moment, his time of assertion, his way of
making fools of us all ... and my complete opinion, sir, is that his
actions from beginning to end were both a triumph and an inspiration!

COUNSELOR: (_smugly_): Thank you, Mr. Pederson. These are the insights
you had not revealed before. (_Turns to member at far end of table._)
Dr. Deobler. As psychologist assigned to Disposition Council, may I ask
if there is an area of concurrence?

DEOBLER (_bored, but deigns to lift a hand_): Save for the rhetorics at
the very end, you have my official concurrence; it is obvious in every
aspect; this was a devious fulfillment of the self-destructive impulse.

COUNSELOR: Thank you, sir! It will be so noted. And now--(_Makes a
pretense of scanning his brief._) Now we come to an area of vital
interest--an area demanding our most urgent attention, inasmuch as it
gives indication of threatening our basic fundamental of cy