cocked an eye at LeRoy. "You've used the computer."

"Correct."

"And you have neither resigned nor cracked up."

General LeRoy nodded. "I called you in."

Before the CIA man could comment, Ford said, "The computer's right
inside this doorway. Let's get this over with while the building is
still empty."

* * * * *

They stepped in. The physicist and the general showed the CIA man
through the room-filling rows of massive consoles.

"It's all transistorized and subminiaturized, of course," Ford
explained. "That's the only way we could build so much detail into the
machine and still have it small enough to fit inside a single building."

"A single building?"

"Oh yes; this is only the control section. Most of this building is
taken up by the circuits, the memory banks, and the rest of it."

"Hm-m-m."

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATED BY SCHELLING]

They showed him finally to a small desk, studded with control buttons
and dials. The single spotlight above the desk lit it brilliantly, in
harsh contrast to the semidarkness of the rest of the room.

"Since you've never run the computer before," Ford said, "General LeRoy
will do the controlling. You just sit and watch what happens."

The general sat in one of the well-padded chairs and donned a grotesque
headgear that was connected to the desk by a half-dozen wires. The CIA
man took his chair slowly.

When they put one of the bulky helmets on him, he looked up at them,
squinting a little in the bright light. "This ... this isn't going
to ... well, do me any damage, is it?"

"My goodness, no," Ford said. "You mean mentally? No, of course not.
You're not on the General Staff, so it shouldn't ... it won't ... affect
you the way it did the others. Their reaction had nothing to do with the
computer _per se_ ..."

"Several civilians have used the computer with no ill effects," General
LeRoy said. "Ford has used it many times."

The CIA man nodded, and they closed the transparent visor over his face.
He sat there and watched General LeRoy press a series of buttons, then
turn a dial.

"Can you hear me?" The general's voice came muffled through the helmet.

"Yes," he said.

"All right. Here we go. You're familiar with Situation One-Two-One?
That's what we're going to be seeing."

Situation One-Two-One was a standard war game. The CIA man was well
acquainted with it. He watched the general flip a switch, then sit back
and fold his ar