se
your mind was being changed," he said. "Now I can see you were doing
it of your own free will."

"Yes," Sir Lewis said. "But how did you know you'd find us _here_,
Malone?"

There was a shadow in the room, but not a visible one. Malone felt the
chill of sudden danger. Whatever was going to happen, he realized, he
would not be around for the finish. He, Kenneth Joseph Malone, the
cuddly, semi-intrepid FBI Agent he had always known and loved, would
never get out of this deadly situation. If he lived, he would be so
changed that--

He didn't even want to think about it.

"What sort of logic," Sir Lewis was saying, "led you to the belief
that we would all be here, in Andrew's house?"

Malone forced his mind to consider the question. "Well," he began, "it
isn't exactly logic, I guess."

Luba smiled at him. He felt a little reassured, but not much. "You
should have phrased that differently," she said. "It's: 'It isn't
exactly logic. I guess.'"

"Not guess," Sir Lewis said. "You know. Prescience, Malone. Your
precognitive faculty."

"All right," Malone said. "All right. So what?"

"Take it easy," Burris put in. "Relax, Malone. Everything's going to
be all right."

Sir Lewis waved a hand negligently. "Let's continue," he said. "Tell
me, Malone: if you were a mathematics professor, teaching a course in
calculus, how would you grade a paper that had all the answers but
didn't show the work?"

"I never took calculus," Malone said. "But I imagine I'd flunk him."

"Why?" Sir Lewis said.

"Because if he can't back up his answer," Malone said slowly, "then
it's no better than a layman's guess. He has to give reasons for his
answers; otherwise nobody else can understand him."

"Fine," Sir Lewis said. "Perfectly fine. Now--" he puffed at his
pipe--"can you give me a logical reason for arriving at the decision
you made a few hours ago?"

The danger was coming closer, Malone realized. He didn't know what it
was or how to guard himself against it. All he could do was answer,
and play for time.

"While I was driving up here," he said, "I sent you a message. I told
you what I knew and what I believed about the whole world picture as
it stands now. I don't know if you received it, but I--"

Luba spoke without the trace of a smile. "You mean you didn't know?"
she said. "You didn't know I was answering you?"

That was the first pebble of the avalanche, Malone knew suddenly--the
avalanche that was somehow going to de