no one recognized psionics, the rules did not take
telepathy, perception, manipulation, into any consideration whatsoever.
Psionics hadn't done away with anything including the old shell game.
All psionics had done was to make the game of chance into a game of
skill, and made the game of skill into a game of talent that required
better control and longer training in order to gain full proficiency.

In Barcelona's case, he had achieved his own apparent immunity by
surrounding himself with a number of hirelings who drew a handsome
salary for sitting around thinking noisy thoughts. Noisy thoughts,
jarring thoughts, stunts like the concentration-interrupter of playing
the first twenty notes of Brahms' Lullaby in perfect pitch and timing
and then playing the twenty-first note in staccato and a half-tone flat.
Making mental contact with Barcelona was approximately the analogue of
eavesdropping upon the intimate cooing of a lover sweet-talking his lady
in the middle of a sawmill working on an order three days late under a
high priority and a penalty clause for delayed delivery.

People who wonder how Barcelona can think for himself with all of that
terrific mental racket going on do not know that Barcelona is one of
those very rare birds who can really concentrate to the whole exclusion
of any distraction short of a vigorous threat to his physical
well-being.

And so his trick of sending Nora Taylor served a threefold purpose. It
indicated his contempt for me. It removed Nora from his zone of
interference so that she could really witness firsthand my mental
squirmings as I watched my own comeuppance bearing down on me. It also
gave him double the telepathic contact with me and my counter-plans--if
any.

In the latter, you see, Barcelona's way of collecting outside
information was to order a temporary cease-fire of the mental noise
barrage and then he'd sally forth like a one-man mental commando raid to
make a fast grab for what he wanted. Since the best of telepaths cannot
read a man's opinion of prunes when he's thinking of peanuts, it is
necessary for someone to be thinking of the subject he wants when he
makes his raid. Having two in the know and interested doubled his chance
for success.

There was also the possibility that Barcelona might consider his
deliberate "Leak" to Gimpy Gordon ineffective. Most sensible folks are
disinclined to treat Gimpy's delusions of grandeur seriously despite the
truth of the cliche tha