," Burris said helplessly. "Not at all, Malone. But we were
worried. I lied to you about those three spies--I put the drug in the
water-cooler. I tried to keep you from learning the Fueyo method of
teleportation. I didn't want you to learn that you were telepathic."

"But I did," Malone said, "And what does that make me?"

"That," Sir Lewis cut in, "is what we're attempting to find out."

Malone felt suitably crushed, but he wasn't sure by what. "I've got
some questions," he said after a second. "I want to know three
things."

"Go ahead," Sir Lewis said.

"One:" Malone said, "How come Her Majesty and the other nutty
telepaths didn't spot you? Two: How come you sent me out on these jobs
when you were afraid I was dangerous? And three: What was it that was
so safe about busting up civilization? How did that save us from the
Last War?"

Sir Lewis nodded. "First," he said, "we've developed a technique of
throwing up a shield and screening it with a surface of innocuous
thoughts--like hiding behind a movie screen. Second ... well, we had
to get the jobs done, Malone. And Andrew thought you were the most
capable, dangerous or not. For one thing, we wanted to get all the
insane telepaths in one place; it's difficult to work when the
atmosphere's full of such telepathic ravings."

"But wrecking the world because of a man with a mind-shield--why not
just work things so his underlings wouldn't obey him?" Malone shook
his head. "That sounds more reasonable."

"It may," Sir Lewis said. "But it wouldn't work. As a matter of fact,
it was tried, and it didn't work. You see, the Sino-Soviet top men
were smart enough to see that their underlings were being tampered
with. And they've developed a system, partly depending on automatic
firing systems, partly on individuals with mind-blocks--that is,
people who aren't being tampered with--which we can't disrupt
directly. So we had to smash them."

"And the United States at the same time," Burris said. "The economic
balance had to be kept; a strong America would be forced in to fill
the power vacuum otherwise, and that would make for an even worse
catastrophe. And if we weren't in trouble, the Sino-Soviet Bloc would
blame their mess on us. And that would start the Last War before
collapse could get started. Right, Malone?"

"I see," Malone said, thinking that he almost did. He told himself he
could feel happy now; the danger--which hadn't been danger to him,
really, but danger fr