was
close-cropped. A young man, she guessed, about twenty-five, quite
ordinary and uninteresting except for the wrestler's muscles and, of
course, his behavior.

Oh, well, it took all kinds.

Dalgetty had a moment of worry. Not because the yarn he had handed her
was thin but because it brushed too close to the truth. He thrust the
unsureness out of him. Chances were she hadn't understood any of it,
wouldn't even mention it. At least not to the people he was hunting.

Or who were hunting him?

Concentration, and the voices slowly came again: "--maybe. But I think
they'll be more stubborn than that."

Bancroft: "Yes. The issues are too large for a few lives to matter.
Still, Michael Tighe is only human. He'll talk."

The woman: "He can be made to talk, you mean?" She had one of the
coldest voices Dalgetty had ever heard.

Bancroft: "Yes. Though I hate to use extreme measures."

Man: "What other possibilities have we got? He won't say anything
unless he's forced to. And meanwhile his people will be scouring the
planet to find him. They're a shrewd bunch."

Bancroft, sardonically: "What can they do, please? It takes more than
an amateur to locate a missing man. It calls for all the resources of
a large police organization. And the last thing they want, as I've
said before, is to bring the government in on this."

The woman: "I'm not so sure of that, Tom. After all, the Institute is
a legal group. It's government sponsored and its influence is
something tremendous. Its graduates--"

Bancroft: "It educates a dozen different kinds of psychotechnicians,
yes. It does research. It gives advice. It publishes findings and
theories. But believe me the Psychotechnic Institute is like an
iceberg. Its real nature and purpose are hidden way under water. No,
it isn't doing anything illegal that I know of. Its aims are so large
that they transcend law altogether."

Man: "What aims?"

Bancroft: "I wish I knew. We've only got hints and guesses, you know.
One of the reasons we've snatched Tighe is to find out more. I suspect
that their real work requires secrecy."

The woman, thoughtfully: "Y-y-yes, I can see how that might be. If the
world at large were aware of being--manipulated--then manipulation
might become impossible. But just where does Tighe's group want to
lead us?"

Bancroft: "I don't know, I tell you. I'm not even sure that they do
want to--take over. Something even bigger than that." A sigh. "Let's
face it,