ngs were not
working out very well. "But the other spies--"

"The next time they try anything," Burris said, "we'll be able to
reach out and pick them up as easy as falling off a log."

"It's the wrong log!" Malone said.

Burris folded his hands on the desk and looked at them for a second,
frowning slightly like a psychiatrist. "Malone," he said at last, "I
want you to listen to me. Calmly. Coolly. Collectedly."

Malone shrugged. "All right," he said. "I'm calm and cool."

"And collected," Burris added.

"That, too," Malone said vaguely.

"Malone," Burris began, "you've got to get rid of this idea that
everything the FBI investigates these days is somehow linked with
psionics. I know you've done a lot of work in that connection--"

"Now, wait a minute," Malone said. "There are those errors. How did
the technicians feed the wrong data into the machines?"

"Errors do happen," Burris said. "If I slip on a banana peel, do I
blame psionics? Do I even blame the United Fruit Growers? I do not,
Malone. Instead, I tell myself that errors do happen. All the time."

"Now," Malone said, "you've contradicted yourself."

"I have?" Burris said with a look of complete surprise.

"Sure," Malone said. He leaned forward across the desk. "If the errors
were just ordinary accidental errors, then how were the spies
responsible? And why did they stop after the spies were arrested? When
you slip on a banana peel, does it matter whether or not the United
Fruit Growers are out on strike?"

"Oh," Burris said.

"You see?" Malone said. "You've gone and contradicted yourself." He
felt victorious, but somewhere in the back of his mind was the
horrible sensation that someone was about to come up behind him and
hit him on the head with a wet sock full of old sand.

A long second passed. Then Burris said: "Oh. Malone, I forgot to give
you the analysis report."

That, Malone realized dimly, was supposed to be the wet sock. Fate, he
told himself, was against him. Anyhow, something was against him. It
was a few seconds before he came to the conclusion that what he had
heard didn't really make any sense. "Analysis report?" he said.

"On the water cooler," Burris explained cheerfully.

"There is an analysis report on a water cooler," Malone said.
"Everything now becomes as clear as crystal." He heard his voice begin
to rise. "You analyzed a water cooler and discovered that it was a
Siberian spy in disguise," he said, trying to make hims