he end of the room as the telecast screen
broke into a shifting light-pattern and then cleared. The face of the
announcer appeared; a young woman.

"And now, we bring you the statement which Chief Tortha of the
Paratime Police has promised for this time. This portion of the
program was audio-visually recorded at Paratime Police Headquarters
earlier this evening."

Tortha Karf's face appeared on the screen. His voice began an
announcement of how Executive Councilman Salgath Trod had called him
by visiphone, admitting to complicity in the recently-discovered
paratemporal slave-trade.

"Here is a recording of Councilman Salgath's call to me from his
apartment to my office at 1945 this evening."

The screen-image shattered into light-shards and rebuilt itself:
Salgath Trod, at his desk in the library of his apartment, the
brandy-goblet and the needler within reach, appeared. He began to
speak: from time to time the voice of Tortha Karf interrupted,
questioning or prompting him.

"You understand that this confession renders you liable to
psycho-rehabilitation?" Tortha Karf asked.

Yes, Councilman Salgath understood that.

"And you agree to come voluntarily to Paratime Police Headquarters,
and you will voluntarily undergo narco-hypnotic interrogation?"

Yes, Salgath Trod agreed to that.

"I am now terminating the playback of Councilman Salgath's call to
me," Tortha Karf said, re-appearing on the screen. "At this point
Councilman Salgath began making a statement about his criminal
activities, which we have on record. Because he named a number of his
criminal associates, whom we have no intention of warning, this
portion of Councilman Salgath's call cannot at this time be made
public. We have no intention of having any of these suspects escape,
or of giving their associates an opportunity to murder them to prevent
their furnishing us with additional information. Incidentally, there
was an attempt, made on the landing stage of Paratime Police
Headquarters, to murder Councilman Salgath, when he was brought here
guarded by Paratime Police officers--"

He went on to give a colorful and, as far as possible, truthful,
account of the attack by the two pseudo-policemen and their
pseudo-prisoner. As he told it, however, all three had been killed
before they could accomplish their purpose, one of them by Salgath
Trod himself.

The image of Tortha Karf was replaced by a view of the three assassins
lying on the landing stag