Burris nodded. "I've talked with the president," he said, "and he
feels this is the best way to handle matters."

Malone tried to imagine Burris explaining the incredible complexities
of the situation to the president, and was torn between relief that he
hadn't been there and a curious wish to have heard the scrambled
conversation that must have taken place. "The way it seems to me," he
said cautiously, "shipping those spies back to Russia is a worse
punishment than sending them to the federal pen."

"Maybe it is," Burris said. "Maybe it is. How would you feel if you
were being sent to jail?"

"Innocent," Malone said instantly.

"But that isn't the point," Burris went on. "You see, Malone, we don't
really have much damaging evidence against those spies, except for
their confessions. During all the time we were watching them, we took
care that they never did come up with anything dangerous; we weren't
fishing for them but for their superiors, for the rest of the
network."

"There doesn't seem to be any more network," Malone said. "Not in this
country, anyhow."

"Sure," Burris said. "We know that now, thanks to the confessions, and
to Her Majesty. But we can't prosecute on that sort of evidence. You
know what a good defense attorney could do with unsupported
confessions--and even if we wanted to take the lid off telepathy for
the general public, it would be absolute hell bringing it into court."

"So," Malone said, "we can't put them in prison, even if we want to."

"Oh, I didn't say that," Burris said hastily. "We could probably win,
even against a good defense. But they wouldn't get much time in
prison, and we'd only end up deporting them in any case."

Malone fished for a cigarette, lit it and blew out smoke. "So we're
going to save the taxpayers some money," he said. "That'll be nice for
a change."

"That's right," Burris said, beaming. "We're going to save Federal
funds by shipping them back to their motherland now. After all, they
did take out their naturalization papers under false names, and their
declarations are chockfull of false information. So all it takes is a
court order to declare their citizenships null and void, and hand all
three of them back to the Soviets."

"A nice, simple housecleaning," Malone said. "All open and
above-board. And the confessions will certainly stand up in a
deportation hearing."

"No question of it," Burris said. "But the reason I called you here,
Malone, is that th