out of
place, it would be better to call it a day.

* * * * *

The electric clock showed 20 minutes to midnight. At midnight The Brain
would stop its mighty labors; the hours from midnight to four a.m. were
its rest periods, or "beauty-sleep" as the technicians jokingly called
it. It was the only period wherein the maintenance engineers were
permitted to enter the interior of the lobes, checking and servicing
group after group of its myriad cells and circuits, and incidentally it
was the most wonderful and exciting portion of Lee's day.

For the project which Scriven had handed him, this study of the
collective brains in insect societies, also involved a comparative study
of The Brain's organisms and functionings. Toward this end Lee had been
given a pass which allowed him freely to circulate through all the
lobes, to enter convolution, any gland during the overhaul period and to
ask question of the employees. The privilege was rare and he enjoyed it
immensely. So vast was this underground world that even now after months
he had not seen the half of it; to him the travels of every new night
were fantastic Alice-in-Wonderland adventures.

As he now left Apperception 36 through the door which led to the
interior, the glideways were already swarming with the maintenance crews
en route to their stations. The spectacle was colorful, almost like a
St. Patrick's Day parade. Gangs of air conditioners were dressed blue,
electricians white, black-light specialists in purple, radionics men in
orange. The maintenance engineers of the radioactive pyramidal cells
looked like illustrations from the science-fiction magazines, hardly
human in their twelve-inch armor or sponge rubber filled with a new
inert gas which was supposed to be almost gamma ray proof. All these men
were young, were tops in their fields, the pick of American
Universities, colleges and the most progressive industries. Carefully
selected for family background they had been screened through health and
intelligence tests, had been trained in special courses, had been
subjected to a five-minute personality analysis by The Brain itself.
They constituted what was undoubtedly the finest working team ever
assembled, and incidentally they made the little city of Cephalon the
socially healthiest community in the United States.

In his nightly expeditions over these past months Lee had spoken to a
great many of them. As now he joined the l