a single, rather small white building with a fence
around it. The fence bothered Malone a little, but there was no need
to worry; this time he was introduced at once into Dr. O'Connor's
office. It was paneled in wallpaper manufactured to look like pine,
and the telepathy expert sat behind a large black desk bigger than any
Malone had ever seen in the FBI offices. There wasn't a scrap of paper
on the desk; its surface was smooth and shiny, and behind it the
nearly transparent Dr. Thomas O'Connor was close to invisible.

He looked, in person, just about the same as he'd looked on the FBI
tapes. Malone closed the door of the office behind him, looked for a
chair and didn't find one. In Dr. O'Connor's office, it was perfectly
obvious, Dr. O'Connor sat down. You stood, and were uncomfortable.

Malone took off his hat. He reached across the desk to shake hands
with the telepathy expert, and Dr. O'Connor gave him a limp fragile
paw. "Thanks for giving me a little time," Malone said. "I really
appreciate it." He smiled across the desk. His feet were already
beginning to hurt.

"Not at all," Dr. O'Connor said, returning the smile with one of his
own special quick-frozen brand. "I realize how important FBI work is
to all of us, Mr. Malone. What can I do to help you?"

Malone shifted his feet. "I'm afraid I wasn't very specific on the
phone last night," he said. "It wasn't anything I wanted to discuss
over a line that might have been tapped. You see, I'm on the telepathy
case."

Dr. O'Connor's eyes widened the merest trifle. "I see," he said.
"Well, I'll certainly do everything I can to help you."

"Fine," Malone said. "Let's get right down to business, then. The
first thing I want to ask you about is this detector of yours. I
understand it's too big to carry around--but how about making a
smaller model?"

"Smaller?" Dr. O'Connor permitted himself a ghostly chuckle. "I'm
afraid that isn't possible, Mr. Malone. I would be happy to let you
have a small model of the machine if we had one available--more than
happy. I would like to see such a machine myself, as a matter of fact.
Unfortunately, Mr. Malone--"

"There just isn't one, right?" Malone said.

"Correct," Dr. O'Connor said. "And there are a few other factors. In
the first place, the person being analyzed has to be in a specially
shielded room, such as is used in encephalographic analysis.
Otherwise, the mental activity of the other persons around him would
interfe