planned. She stopped. Her handkerchief
dropped to the ground, and then her bag. She looked at me wildly. She
ran over and sat on the bench beside me. She put her arms around my
neck and kissed me.

"Why were you crying?" I asked.

"I don't remember," she said. "I don't care."

I closed my eyes. My senses were responding to her warmth and her
scent. Suddenly there was a blast of male heat on my chin. I started
and stared. There standing above us was the huge heavy man of the
night before. The mass of metal was still under his left arm pit. He
had an odd expression on his face. He was watching the girl as if her
condition was answering a question for him.

In a sudden flash of intuition everything was clear to me. The girl
was a decoy. I had fallen neatly into a trap. I had thoughtlessly
demonstrated my power to the F.B.I, man--a power I could not explain
by saying it was a trick.

I pushed the girl away and stood up. The man's eyes were fixed upon me
with horror. I saw that he knew there was something monstrous and
menacing about me. Something he did not understand. Something that
meant terrible danger to him and his kind. His right hand started to
creep towards the mass of metal under his arm. I cupped my hand
towards him and started accumulating a heat charge. His glance dropped
fearfully. It fell to my hand, and his temperature went up. He had
undoubtedly seen me burn pieces of paper in the theatre.

His right hand fumbled in his pocket and he drew out a little package.
"Have a cigarette?"

I shook my head. He put one in his own mouth and lighted a match. In
spite of the strongest effort of my will I jumped back. I jerked my
hand up over my chin. A little stick of wood with a flaring flame on
the end of at least 600 degrees Centigrade, right in front of my heat
sensors, took my breath away. The searing heat burned right into my
brain. It was like some of the tortures in Your Excellency's Force
Number Five.

The heavy man observed all of this, but he did not understand it. He
looked at the girl, who had risen and was leaning against me,
oblivious of everything.

"You've got quite a way with women, haven't you?" he said. He dragged
on his cigarette. The tip flamed up painfully. I shrank back and again
brought my hand up to protect my chin.

"What's the matter with you?" the man asked sharply.

I did not know how to answer. I stood mute and waiting.

"I want to go now, and I want to take that girl with me