oriums and the people in them.

"You see, sir, we learned from the two men captured on Mars about your
practice of having the two highest echelons of your organization
attend significant hearings in the Tribunal Hall through the Assembly
Circuit. Our plan was based on that. We knew that if anything was to
be accomplished with the Oneness principles on Earth, it would have to
be through a situation in which they could be applied simultaneously
to the entire leadership of the Machine. That has now been done, and
the fact that you had the Tribunal Hall taken out of the Assembly
Circuit did not change the Oneness contact. It remains in full
effect."

Spokesman Dorn stared at him for an instant, said, "We can test the
truth of that statement immediately, of course; and we shall!" His
hand moved on the desk.

* * * * *

Menesee felt pain surge through his left arm. It was not nearly as
acute a sensation as the previous pulse had been, but it lasted
longer--a good ten seconds. Menesee let his breath out carefully as it
again ebbed away.

He heard the spokesman saying, "Rainbolt's claim appears to be
verified. I've received a report that the pulse was being experienced
in one of the auditoriums ... and, yes ... now in several."

Rainbolt nodded. "It was a valid claim, believe me, sir!" he said
earnestly. "The applications of our principles have been very
thoroughly explored, and the effects are invariable. Naturally, our
strategem would have been useless if I'd been able to maintain contact
only long enough to provide you with a demonstration of Oneness. Such
a contact can be broken again, of course. But until I act deliberately
to break it, it maintains itself automatically.

"To make that clear, I should explain that distance, direction and
intervening shielding materials do not change the strength of the
contact. Distance at least does not until it is extended to
approximately fifty thousand miles."

"And what happens then?" the spokesman asked, watching him.

"At that point," Rainbolt acknowledged, "Oneness contacts do become
tenuous and begin to dissolve." He added, almost apologetically,
"However, that offers you no practical solution to your problem."

"Why not?" Dorn asked. He smiled faintly. "Why shouldn't we simply
lock you into a spaceship and direct the ship through the defense
fields and out into the solar system on automatic control?"

"I sincerely hope you don't try it