lped.

"You see, Mr. Fisher ... that wasn't really his name, you understand ...
was one of us ... a member of our observation team. After we arrived
here ... well, you might say he defected, gave your government the
benefit of his somewhat limited knowledge."

Harry whistled. "And because of him your mission is no longer
observational."

"That remains to be seen."

Harry leaned forward on the sofa. "You have any ideas, Mr. Thompson,
about why he defected? I'm curious to know why a man is unhappy enough
with his own lot to run away and put himself in the hands of a
civilization that is in every way alien to him."

Thompson's answer was brief and deliberately ambiguous. "Mr. Fisher was
a traitor. What more can be said of him?"

"So he didn't commit suicide," Harry muttered.

"That's right, Mr. Payne."

"I take it you're not sure of how much Fisher told the government before
you got to him."

"Mr. Fisher's limitations were familiar to us. It is the potential of
your own scientists now that they have his information that we are most
concerned with."

Keep stalling, Harry reminded himself ... keep speculating, guessing,
theorizing, anything for time.

"So you know the project that Weapons Development is working on but you
don't know how much progress has been made. And you want to place one of
your own people in there to find out."

"Thanks to you, we have succeeded in doing just that." Thompson smiled
with satisfaction, having kept his part of a bargain. "Now about those
recordings...."

"I'm not through asking questions."

"But I'm through answering them, Mr. Payne. Tell us where the recordings
are."

* * * * *

Harry studied the clean, smooth surface of Thompson's face. There was a
gentleness in his large, round eyes. There was also an unfriendliness.
Harry had to keep stalling. He knew any answer he gave them would
shorten his life expectancy by about thirty-five years.

"You've gotten me into a mess of trouble, Mr. Thompson. I think you owe
me a little more. My memory might prove clearer if I knew what was going
on at Weapons Development."

Thompson glanced at his two companions. They showed no sign of dissent.

"Very well, Mr. Payne. For some years now our people have been working
on a method of reversing the polarity of the atom. We have tried to
create an electro-magnetic field which would repel rather than attract.
Once we are able to accomplish this we can de