ally read
minds! I think this guy knows something I want to learn, but I can't get
the least idea of what it is."

But he kept trying, and not only with the mind of this one man he had
been sent here to guard. He reached out to all other minds in the room,
but none of them seemed to have any thoughts about the why of this
unexpected happenstance. There were mostly feelings of anger that their
beautiful new Embassy building had not been properly dedicated, and
their ceremony ruined.

Abrams had sunk into a chair, and it soon became apparent to Hanlon that
he wasn't planning on handling any of his other outside errands that
day.

"Will you want me any more, sir?" he finally asked after a considerable
period of uneasy fidgetting. The Simonidean broke out of his
abstraction, and rose to his feet.

"No, I shall stay here for the balance of the day at least. You may as
well return to your other duties. Again, thank you, personally, for
saving my life, and please express my thanks to the Corps for sending
you. But I still can't understand ..." He turned away, muttering.

Hanlon saluted the other members of the Embassy staff, and rode the
slideways back to Base, reporting to Admiral Rogers, to whom he gave a
full and concise account of all that had happened.

"Whatever Mr. Abrams and the police may think, I still believe it was
all carefully planned," he concluded thoughtfully. "It wasn't just one
man, for I could see at least a dozen. Though, of course," he added
quickly, "one man may have been behind it."

"Undoubtedly," the admiral said. "There was the chance of something like
this, which is why I picked you for the job, hoping you could get some
leads from it."

"I told you I couldn't read specific thoughts or information," Hanlon
said. "If you and the top brass picked me for the SS because you thought
I could, you'd better release me from it. I can't work in a crowd at
all, for there's such a jumble of thought-emanations I can't separate
them. Even working with an individual I can only sense something of his
feelings. Just as now," he grinned mirthlessly, "you're disappointed
because I didn't get any data, and thinking my so-called mind-reading is
all a fake."

The admiral almost jumped. "Why, I am not ...," then he looked
surprised, and laughed. "By Snyder, I was, too!" He sobered. "But if you
can do that, even if you can't actually read the words of the thought,
you'll still be able to help, I'm sure. No, you