Des Moines, Ia., 27 June, 2157. A woman whose name was withheld
today placed charges against Miss Martha Bishop, 23, of Oak Park
Section, Chicago, whose name is listed in the Federal psi-positive
registry. The charge was made at local Federal Security offices,
and accused Miss Bishop of mental interference. The victim, who
allegedly had information concerning the rumors of an Alien visitor
which have been persistently appearing lately, claimed that Miss
Bishop had attempted to prevent her from reporting her information.
After failing in this attempt, Miss Bishop was charged with using
her psi-powers to erase the information from the woman's mind. Miss
Bishop could not be reached for comment.
Mr. J. B. Dunlap, spokesman for the Liberal Senatorial Council in
Washington, has repeatedly denied that the rumor of alien visitors
has any basis in fact. Nevertheless, the charges against Miss
Bishop are being investigated fully--
Faircloth crumpled the tape with a snarl and returned to his coffee.
Finally he nodded to Marino. "Drink up," he said, "and get in touch
with your men. It's time to go."
Ted Marino left for the elevators to corral his men, arranging to meet
Faircloth in the concourse five minutes later. Paul found a visiphone
relay booth, and sank his long, lean body down in a relaxer facing the
screen. The last of the rush-hour people were still drifting by in the
corridor; Paul watched them anxiously. Then he gave a nervous laugh,
forcing himself to relax for a moment. If only Jean were here! He
battled an impulse to call her. Finally he dialed the priority code for
the Federal Security Commission offices in Washington.
The relays clicked, and the code carried him through the front-line
secretaries without any trouble. He gave a sigh of relief. He was in
no mood to argue with secretaries. A moment later he was blinking at
Roberts' tri-di image on the screen.
Roberts' face looked haggard. He nodded to Faircloth. "You got there,
then. Good. How does it look, Paul?"
"Everything's just real nice," Faircloth growled. "They think they've
got him pinned. The building here has a central power source, and we
can bottleneck the whole place if we time it right."
"Don't miss, Paul." Roberts' voice was tense. "Whatever you do, don't
miss."
"What's the matter?"
"Ben Towne has worked his way into this."
"Oh, god!"
"Well, I can't help it, there was nothing I could do. He has the whole
American Council behind him, and the Liberals can't hold out long on
negative results. Towne has the whole picture now, and if we don't
wrap it up fast, things here in the Capitol are going to blow sky high."