d to take the receiver:

"Oh hello, Oona; this is Howard. Saw your plane over the canyon."

"Where are you?"

"Right behind you," chuckled Scriven's voice. "On the maiden trip with
my new ship. Took her over in Los Angeles this afternoon straight from
the assembly line. She's got everything. Oona, I don't wish to spoil
your evening for you but there are a few things right now I wish I could
consult with you about. Do you think you could spare me a minute? Would
you feel terrible if you did? Who's with you now; I don't mean to be
personal, you understand."

"Why it's Dr. Lee, of course."

"That's fine. He's the very man I want to see. Perhaps you two would
like to come over for cocktails in my ship? We could both land at the
top of the Braintrust building; it would be more comfortable than up in
the air. Besides, we would have all our working material right there."

With her hand on the receiver Oona turned to Lee: "How about it,
Semper?"

"Do you want me to go?" he asked.

"Frankly I do," she said earnestly. "He needs your aid. He's in a
terrible fix right now."

He tried to hide the bitterness of disappointment by a smile. "Why then
of course," he said.

Uncovering the receiver Oona spoke aloud again: "Okay, Howard, we'll be
seeing you."

"Fine, fine," came the delighted voice: "I'll phone the tower
immediately."

With Scriven's big ship flying behind Oona's, only a few miles behind,
the broken spell did not return. Already like a white table cloth laid
in the sky, the landing platform of the Braintrust tower gleamed under
the floodlights, and as the two ships descended almost side by side into
the clearing behind the cabin, plain-clothes men materialized from under
the shadows of the trees. Under the strong lights their smiles were as
well-bred as those of trained diplomats and their poise was perfect. Six
of them kept Lee, the stranger, covered while the seventh quickly
frisked him under the disguise of a polite bow.

Bearing it all with a grin, Lee thought: "I never knew home would be
like this. Never suspected it would be this kind of an America we were
fighting for. The Brain, it's got a private army too. Funny that I
should have known that all the time and yet not realized...."

Scriven took him warmly by the arm. "I'm awfully sorry Lee, it's plain
folly of course. I don't feel as if I need all this protection, but the
government does. Don't blame it on these men, they merely obey orders.
Now,