se torture. It was part of the interlocking
mechanisms of interrogation, no more to be omitted than the
preliminary conditioning by drug and hypnosis. Menesee was not unduly
squeamish, but he felt some relief that it would not be the crude
instruments ranked beside the prisoner which would be used. They were
reserved as a rule for offending members of the organization,
providing a salutary warning for any others who might be tempted to
act against the interests of the Machine or fail culpably in their
duties. This prisoner, as an individual, meant nothing to the Machine.
He was simply a source of valuable information. Therefore, only direct
nerve stimulation would be employed, in the manipulation of which
Spokesman Dorn was a master.

So far the Spokesman had restricted himself to asking the prisoner
questions, his voice and manner gravely courteous. To Menesee's
surprised interest, he had just inquired whether two men of the last
Earth ship to visit Mars, who had disappeared there, might not have
been captured by Mars Convicts operating secretly within the Solar
System.

"Yes, sir," Rainbolt replied readily, "they were. I'm happy to say
that they're still alive and well."

Menesee recalled the incident now. After the mass escape of the Mars
Convicts, the penal settlements had been closed down and the mining
operations abandoned. To guard the desert planet against FTL raiders
as Earth was guarded was technically infeasible. But twice each decade
a patrol ship went there to look for signs that the Mars Convicts had
returned. The last of these patrols had been conducted two years
before. The missing men were believed to have been inspecting a
deserted settlement in a ground vehicle when they vanished, but no
trace of them or the vehicle could be discovered.

Administrator Bradshaw, seated to the spokesman's left, leaned forward
as if to speak, but then sat back again. Menesee thought that
Rainbolt's blunt admission had angered him. Bradshaw, white-haired and
huge in build, had been for many years the nominal head of the
Machine; but in practice the powers of the administrator were less
than those of the spokesman, and it would have been a breach of
protocol for Bradshaw to intervene in the interrogation.

Dorn appeared to have noticed nothing. He went on. "What was the
reason for capturing these men?" "It was necessary," Rainbolt
explained, "to find out what the conditions on Earth were like at
present. At the time