his first experience with direct nerve stimulation. He stood kneading
his right hand with his left, staring up at the spokesman, mouth half
open.

Menesee smiled in grim amusement. It would have been a low-level
pulse, of course; but even a low-level pulse, arriving unexpectedly,
was a very unpleasant surprise. He had foreseen the spokesman's
action, had, in fact, felt a sympathetic imaginary twinge in his own
right hand as the pulse reached the prisoner.

Rainbolt swallowed, said in a changed voice, "Sir, we heard from the
two captured men that the Machine has retained its practice of torture
during interrogations. It isn't necessary to convince me that you are
serious about this. Do the questions you referred to have to do with
the stardrive?"

The spokesman nodded. "Of course."

Rainbolt said stubbornly, "Then, sir, it can do you no good at all to
torture me. I simply don't have such information. We do plan to make
the stardrive freely available to Earth. But not while Earth is ruled
by the organization of the Machine."

This time, Menesee did not observe the motion of the spokesman's hand.
Instead he saw Rainbolt jerk violently to the right. At the same
moment, a blast of intense, fiery, almost unbearable pain shot up his
own arm. As he grasped his arm, sweat spurting out on his face, he
heard screams from the box on his left and realized it was Director
Cornelius who screamed.

There were answering screams from around the hall.

[Illustration]

Then the pain suddenly subsided.

* * * * *

Menesee started about, breathing raggedly. The pain-reaction had been
severe enough to affect his vision; the great hall looked momentarily
darker than it should have been. And although the actual pain had
ended, the muscles of his arm and shoulder were still trying to cramp
into knots.

There was no more screaming. From the right came Director Ojeda's
gasping voice. "What happened? Did something go wrong with the
stimulating devices? We might all have been killed--!"

Menesee didn't reply. Wherever he looked, he saw faces whitened with
shock. Apparently everyone in the Tribunal Hall, from the
administrator and Spokesman Dorn on down to the directors' attendants
and the two guards flanking the prisoner's area, had felt the same
thing. Here and there, men who had collapsed were struggling awkwardly
back to their feet. He heard a hoarse whisper behind him. "Sir,
Director Cornelius appe