ter started guiltily.
He whirled and sought to identify Pardeau in the semi-darkness. Pardeau
said, "Please step outside with me. I have some questions."

There was fear in Hillerman's bearing as he got clumsily to his feet and
followed Pardeau. But none of Cargill's speech was missed. A battery of
loudspeakers carried it even into the foyer where Pardeau stopped and
turned on Hillerman. He regarded the man through cold, calculating eyes.
He seemed to be both enjoying Hillerman's discomfort and also listening
to Cargill's booming words.

"--these pale weaklings, these traitors with twitching muscles and
twitching minds who skulked in dark places have been finally and
decisively defeated. Even their vaunted leader--"

"What have you been doing," Pardeau asked, "relative to Karl Lenster?"

The frightened Hillerman licked his fat lower lip as he sought for
words. "Everything--everything possible. But Lenster is clever. You know
that. You know that yourself."

Pardeau's eyes bored into those of the Intelligence Director. They were
noted for their icy penetration, but upon this night they were like
steel knives. It was as though he surveyed Hillerman from behind the
bulwark of some new and hostile information. Even as he stared, Cargill
was booming from the rostrum:

"--Karl Lenster, their _peerless_ leader--"

And Cargill's voice crackled with the inflections of pure contempt.

"--a degenerate--a dope addict whose greatness lay only in the realms of
his sensual dreams. A weak, pitiful figure bereft of followers, cringing
alone in--"

When Pardeau spoke, his voice held a new sharpness to complement the new
ice in his eyes. He said, "In half an hour I am attending a meeting of
the Council. They will want a report. What about Lenster?"

Hillerman looked quickly to right and left, then back at his Chief. He
hesitated as though fearing the consequences of what he was about to
reveal. "You know of the Wyckoff Chemical Transformation Process--"

"Certainly I know of it," Pardeau blazed. "What about it?"

"I--I--" But Hillerman seemed to lose the courage he'd screwed up to
continue in this direction. He straightened and a little of the hangdog
servility dropped away. "I am doing all that is humanly possible to
apprehend Lenster. All that any man could do. The secret jails are full.
My interrogators work night and day. Even a superficial check of my
records would show that more has been done in the last six months and i