them?" the woman asked in a frantic whisper.

"I'm afraid I did."

"We'll have to flee the city," the woman told Mulden, ignoring Ellaby
now. "If he told them that, he probably named names. I have friends in
Hampton Roads--"

"Let him finish," Mulden said. Mulden was looking strangely at Ellaby.

"They didn't ask me to name anyone in the conspiracy," Ellaby said.
"Unless they could poker very well, they seemed perfectly calm. They
said they would make an exception in my case. They would clear me for
top secret work. I start tomorrow."

"What's your job?" Mulden asked eagerly.

"Well, this is the strangest part. I'm to be the Dictator's
confidential assistant."

"Of course!" Mulden cried. "It makes sense. Don't you see, Sinclair?
We're not the only ones. There are others, inside the government, who
think it's time for a _coup_. With their help, Ellaby won't fail us."

Dorcas Sinclair wasn't convinced. "Doesn't it seem peculiar to you
that, purely by co-incidence, Ellaby happened to meet these people?"

But Mulden shrugged. "You know the old saw about the gift horse," he
said. "Ellaby will go ahead with the plan. Tomorrow, if all goes well,
we'll have a full-scale revolution on our hands. Don't you understand,
Sinclair? The Dictator--a figurehead. There are plenty of people
around like us, who don't want to do things just because everyone else
does them, who don't want to be stamped by the mold of conformity, who
don't want ... but I don't have to go on. The Dictator is a
figurehead, a symbol of power. Destroy him and the whole conforming
system comes tumbling down in chaos. You'll see tomorrow."

It was all beyond Ellaby, who was still weary from the playback
ordeals. He took the small, palm-sized blaster from Mulden and slipped
it into his tunic. Tomorrow he would assassinate the Dictator and
suffer the consequences. He almost had in mind to rebel. The people at
testing had been very nice--except for those earphones. But the
Sinclair woman and Mulden might be able to do as bad--or worse. He'd
go through with it.

Under the circumstances, he slept surprisingly well.

* * * * *

Mulden's passionate parting words still ringing in his ears, Ellaby
entered the capitol building. "Someday you and your kind will
understand, Ellaby," Mulden had said. "Someday you'll know what banal
really means, and vulgar. Someday--I promise you, someday--the true
social perspective will be re-est