u...."

"Judge, don't make me call those guards and have you removed," Conn
said.

"You can stop bluffing," Shanlee told him. "Where would you get a
mind-probe?"

"Out of the Chief of Intelligence's office, here in his headquarters.
I should imagine it was to be used in interrogating Alliance
prisoners, during the War. I think Colonel Zareff would enjoy helping
to use it on you. He used to be an Alliance officer."

Shanlee was silent. Conn sat down in one of the chairs, at the small
table.

"General Shanlee, would you describe General Foxx Travis as a man of
honor and integrity? And would you so describe yourself?" Shanlee said
nothing. "Yet both of you have lied, deliberately and repeatedly, to
conceal the existence of Merlin. And we found that bomb in your room.
You were willing to blow up this headquarters and everybody, yourself
included, in it, to keep us from getting at Merlin. Well, you know
that we can make you tell us the truth, maybe when it's too late, and
you know that we are going to get Merlin. We're cutting the collapsium
off that thing above now."

Shanlee laughed. "You're supposed to be a computerman. You think that
little thing could be Merlin?"

"The controls and programming machine for Merlin." He turned to Kurt
Fawzi. "You always claimed that Merlin was here in Force Command. You
had it backward. Force Command is inside Merlin."

"What do you mean, Conn?"

"The walls; the fifty-foot walls, shielded inside and out. Merlin--the
circuitry, the memory-bank, the relays, everything--was installed
inside them. What's up above is only what was needed to operate the
computer. Isn't that true, General?"

Shanlee had stopped his derisive laughter. He sat on the edge of the
cot, tensing as though for a leap at Conn's throat.

"That won't help, either. If you try it, we won't shoot you. We'll
just overpower you and start mind-probing right away. Now; you feel
that suppressing Merlin was worth any sacrifice. We're not
unreasonable. If you can convince us that Merlin ought not to be
brought to light.... Well, you can't do any harm by talking, and you
may do some good. You may even accomplish your mission."

"He can't talk us out of it," Kurt Fawzi seemed determined to spoil
things by saying. "Conn, I'm coming around to Klem's way of thinking.
They just don't want anybody else to have it."

"No, we don't," Shanlee said. "We don't want the whole Federation
breaking up into bloody anarchy, and that'