he list
of time line designations. They were expressed numerically, in First
Level notation; extremely short groups of symbols capable of exact
expression of almost inconceivably enormous numbers. Vall had only a
general-education smattering of mathematics--enough to qualify him for
the chair of Higher Mathematics at any university on, say, the Fourth
Level Europo-American Sector--and he could not identify the
peculiarity, but he could recognize that there existed some sort of
pattern. Shoving in the starting lever, he relaxed in one of the
chairs, waiting for the transposition field to build up around him,
and fell asleep before the mesh dome of the conveyer had vanished. He
woke, the list of time line designations in his hand, when the
conveyor rematerialized on Home Time Line. Putting it in his pocket,
he hurried to an antigrav shaft and floated up to the floor on which
Tortha Karf's office was.

* * * * *

Tortha Karf was asleep in his chair; Dalla was eating a dinner that
had been brought in to her--something better than the sandwich and mug
of coffee Vall had mentioned to Thalvan Dras. Several of the bureau
chiefs who had been there when he had gone out had left, and the
psychist who had taken charge of the prisoner was there.

"I think he's coming out of the drug, now," he reported. "Still
asleep, though. We want him to waken naturally before we start on him.
They'll call me as soon as he shows signs of stirring."

"The Opposition's claiming, now, that we drugged and hypnotized
Salgath into making that visiscreen confession," Dalla said. "Can you
think of any way you could do that without making the subject
incapable of lying?"

"Pseudo-memories," the psychist said. "It would take about three times
as long as the time between Salgath Trod's departure from his
apartment and the time of the telecast, though--"

"You know much higher math?" Vall asked the psychist.

"Well, enough to handle my job. Neuron-synapse inter-relations,
memory-and-association patterns, that kind of thing, all have to be
expressed mathematically."

Vall nodded and handed him the time-line designation list.

"See any kind of a pattern there?" he asked.

The psychist looked at the paper and blanked his face as he drew on
hypnotically-acquired information.

"Yes. I'd say that all the numbers are related in some kind of a
series to some other number. Simplified down to kindergarten level,
say the dif