dumb little
animals against the powers of a God. Oona had been right; he _was_ that
knight in rusty armor charging against windmills on a Rozinante....

* * * * *

Vivian Leahy dragged him into the reception room of the medical center
almost by force. "The doctors have been waiting for you two hours now,"
she scolded him. "They never did that before for any man. How come you
forgot? And you forgot me too; last time you were so nice, I thought you
would date me up. I couldn't have resisted your invitation, you know.
Now, off with your coat."

Despite their irritation Mellish and Bondy received Lee with all their
tweedy cordiality. While they piled their weird equipment around the
operation table their tongues kept wagging: "The disappearance of the
President; what did Lee make of that? Was he dead or alive? Those
horrible catastrophes all over the country; what was behind all this?
Foreign agents, a native underground? Didn't Lee think there was a tidal
wave of anti-technology feeling arising since unemployment had again set
in? And would the international crisis lead to war? The Brain, of
course, would be the safest place in that event; but then, to think of
the civilian population, an anticipated forty, fifty million dead;
terrible wasn't it? Was Lee still able to concentrate upon his
scientific work these harrowing days? If so, the nervous strain was
terrific; they had experienced that in themselves. One reached the point
of diminishing returns, didn't one? Yes, they had noticed signs of
fatigue in Lee; discolorations under the eyes, a certain tenseness. Had
he lost weight recently? He looked it and he certainly had none to
spare. Did he suffer from insomnia? What you need is a good long rest,
Dr. Lee."

He gave his answers automatically, detached, absent-minded almost. They
were playing with him as a cat with a mouse. All their questions were
leading questions; he knew that, but it didn't seem to matter now.
Nothing mattered now after the great plan had failed, after his
beautiful dream too had vanished in the talk with Oona last night. "I've
outlived my usefulness," he thought.

The huge disk with the feeler-ray antennae sank down close to his chest,
heavy as the keystone upon a tomb. The lights went out and then there
was again that uncanny sensation of having millions of soldiers running
circles all over one's skin, The Brain's vibration rays. They had a
strange hypnotic effec