ous criminals',
you're absolutely right. I have never gone beyond first stage
interrogation--simple questioning--with an innocent, and truthsense
lets me be sure the ones I kill are guilty of the crimes they're sent
to me for." She smiled, grimly. "I don't even have to ask, since they
all protest their innocence."

"You said that if I help, a second prisoner may leave here alive. What
help do you need?"

"Your mind-probe, if it doesn't require the subject to answer
verbally." Cortin explained about her anomalous prisoner, then said,
"It's probably nothing significant, but I don't like it. I can't find
the Inquisitor who conducted the interrogation, and there are rumors
the judge who sent him here has ties to the Brotherhood. If he was
sent here under false pretenses, my prisoner should be freed and given
compensation, and the judge should take his place."

"The probe doesn't require verbal answers, no," Medart said. "And
since it may mean saving a life, I'll have a probe unit and operator
come down." He paused, considering. He could use telepathy to get the
answers she wanted, and her own--the small part she was calling
truthsense--would let her be sure he was reporting accurately. That
would be quicker than waiting for the probe; the question was whether
it would be wiser to reveal his Talent or not mention it at all.

Use it, he decided. Odeon had read about the White Order rebellion and
Corina's discovery of human Talent in Medart, then others; he might not
know the details, but he did know the basics, and it would be logical
to assume he'd passed the information along. "That'll take several
hours, though, and there's a faster way, if you want. I'm a fairly
powerful telepath; I can read his mind as well as a probe could, and
I'm already here."

It was Cortin's turn to hesitate. Mike had mentioned Talent, yes, and
had some telepathy himself, with anyone Shayan had mind-touched; the
idea wasn't that odd, really, and Medart's offer would save time.
Still--"Are you reading my mind?"

"No. I touched you briefly when we met, enough to learn you're not a
threat, though I did pick up a little other information. Otherwise I
seldom use it unless I'm invited or there's an emergency."

Her truthsense agreed, so Cortin nodded. "If an injustice is being
done, it should be corrected as soon as possible; I accept." She
turned to her people. "Mike, Dave--would you take that prisoner to my
first-stage room,