rst of the Controllers. But
that wasn't Donnely's style.

"None of this namby-pamby stuff," he had once been quoted as saying; "if
you got enemies, don't tease 'em--show 'em who's running things.
Blackjack 'em, if you have to."

And that's exactly what "Blackjack" Donnely had done. The trial was a
farce from beginning to end; each witness gave his evidence from the
stand, and then Donnely took control of their minds and made them refute
every bit of it, publicly and tearfully apologizing to the "wonderful
Mr. Donnely" for saying such unkind things about him.

The judge and the jury knew something funny was going on, but they had
no evidence, one way or another. The case, even at that point, might
have ended with an acquittal or a hung jury, but Donnely wasn't through
using his blackjack.

He took over the mind of the foreman of the jury. The foreman claimed
later that the jury had decided that they could reach no decision. Other
jurors claimed that they had decided Donnely was guilty, but that was
probably an _ex post facto_ switch. It didn't matter, anyway; when the
foreman came out, he pronounced Donnely innocent. That should have ended
it.

The other jurors began to protest, but by that time, Donnely had gained
control of the judge's mind. Rapidly, the judge silenced the jurors,
declared Donnely to be free, and then publicly apologized for ever
daring to doubt Mr. Donnely.

The State's Attorney was equally verbose in his apology; he was almost
in tears because of his "deep contrition at having cast aspersions on
the spotless character of so great a man."

Donnely was released.

The next evening, "Blackjack" Donnely was shot down at the front door of
his own home. There were fifteen bullets in his body; three from a .32,
five from a .38, and seven from a .45.

The police investigation was far from thorough; any evidence that may
have turned up somehow got lost. It was labelled as "homicide committed
by person or persons unknown," and it stayed that way.

* * * * *

Donnely was only the first. In the next two years, four more showed up.
Everyone of them, in one way or another, had attempted to gain power or
money by mental projection. Everyone of them was a twisted megalomaniac.

Houston looked again at Harris's picture on the front page of the
_Times_. Here was one Controller who neither looked nor acted like a
megalomaniac. That wouldn't make much difference to the PD Pol