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.""Then it did not occur to you that if a Second Foundationer could force, orentice, or inveigle you into going to the Second Foundation for purposes of hisown – and I assume you imagined he used methods similar to mine, though, mindyou, I can implant only emotions, not ideas – it did not occur to you that if hecould do that there was little necessity to put a hypertracer on you.And Channis looked up sharply and met his sovereign's large eyes with suddenstartle.Pritcher grunted and a visible relaxation showed itself in hisshoulders."No," said Channis, "that hadn't occurred to me.""Or that if they were obliged to trace you, they couldn't feel capable ofdirecting you, and that, undirected, you could have precious little chance offinding your way here as you did.Did that occur to you?""That, neither.""Why not? Has your intellectual level receded to a so-much-greater-than-probabledegree?""The only answer is a question, sir.Are you joining General Pritcher inaccusing me of being a traitor?""You have a defense in case I am?""Only the one I presented to the general.If I were a traitor and knew thewhereabouts of the Second Foundation, you could Convert me and learn theknowledge directly.If you felt it necessary to trace me, then I hadn't theknowledge beforehand and wasn't a traitor.So I answer your paradox withanother.""Then your conclusion?""That I am not a traitor.""To which I must agree, since your argument is irrefutable.""Then may I ask you why you had us secretly followed?""Because to all the facts there is a third explanation.Both you and Pritcherexplained some facts in your own individual ways, but not all.I – if you canspare me the time – will explain all.And in a rather short time, so there islittle danger of boredom.Sit down, Pritcher, and give me your blaster.There isno danger of attack on us any longer.None from in here and none from out there.None in fact even from the Second Foundation.Thanks to you, Channis."The room was lit in the usual Rossemian fashion of electrically heated wire.Asingle bulb was suspended from the ceiling and in its dim yellow glow, the threecast their individual shadows.The Mule said: "Since I felt it necessary to trace Channis, it was obvious Iexpect to gain something thereby.Since he went to the Second Foundation with astartling speed and directness, we can reasonably assume that that was what Iwas expecting to happen.Since I did not gain the knowledge from him directly,something must have been preventing me.Those are the facts.Channis, of course,knows the answer.So do I.Do you see it, Pritcher?"And Pritcher said doggedly: "No, sir.""Then I’ll explain.Only one kind of man can both know the location of theSecond Foundation and prevent me from learning it.Channis, I'm afraid you're aSecond Foundationer yourself."And Channis' elbows rested on his knees as he leaned forward, and through stiffand angry lips said: "What is your direct evidence? Deduction has proven wrongtwice today.""There is direct evidence, too, Channis.It was easy enough.I told you that mymen had been tampered with.The tamperer must have been, obviously, someone whowas a) Unconverted, and b) fairly close to the center of things.The field waslarge but not entirely unlimited.You were too successful, Channis.People likedyou too much.You got along too well.I wondered–"And then I summoned you to take over this expedition and it didn't set youback.I watched your emotions.It didn't bother you.You overplayed theconfidence there, Channis.No man of real competence could have avoided a dashof uncertainty at a job like that.Since your mind did avoid it, it was either afoolish one or a controlled one.It was easy to test the alternatives.I seized your mind at a moment ofrelaxation and filled it with grief for an instant and then removed it.You wereangry afterwards with such accomplished art that I could have sworn it was anatural reaction, but for that which went first.For when I wrenched at youremotions, for just one instant, for one tiny instant before you could catchyourself, your mind resisted.It was all I needed to know."No one could have resisted me, even for that tiny instant, without controlsimilar to mine."Channis' voice was low and bitter: "Well, then? Now what?""And now you die – as a Second Foundationer.Quite necessary, as I believe yourealize."And once again Channis stared into the muzzle of a blaster.A muzzle guided thistime by a mind, not like Pritcher's capable of offhand twisting to suit himself,but by one as mature as his own and as resistant to force as his own.And the period of time allotted him for a correction of events was small.What followed thereafter is difficult to describe by one with the normalcomplement of senses and the normal incapacity for emotional control.Essentially, this is what Channis realized in the tiny space of time involved inthe pushing of the Mule's thumb upon the trigger contact.The Mule's current emotional makeup was one of a hard and polisheddetermination, unmisted by hesitation in the least.Had Channis beensufficiently interested afterward to calculate the time involved from thedetermination to shoot to the arrival of the disintegrating energies, he mighthave realized that his leeway was about one-fifth of a second.That was barely time.What the Mule realized in that same tiny space of time was that the emotionalpotential of Channis' brain had surged suddenly upwards without his own mindfeeling any impact and that, simultaneously, a flood of pure, thrilling hatredcascaded upon him from an unexpected direction.It was that new emotional element that jerked his thumb off the contact.Nothingelse could have done it, and almost together with his change of action, camecomplete realization of the new situation.It was a tableau that endured far less than the significance adhering to itshould require from a dramatic standpoint.There was the Mule, thumb off theblaster, staring intently upon Channis There was Channis taut, not quite daringto breathe yet.And there was Pritcher, convulsed in his chair; every muscle ata spasmodic breaking point; every tendon writhing in an effort to hurl forward;his face twisted at last out of schooled woodenness into an unrecognizable deathmask of horrid hate; and his eyes only and entirely and supremely upon the Mule.Only a word or two passed between Channis and the Mule – only a word or two andthat utterly revealing stream of emotional consciousness that remains foreverthe true interplay of understanding between such as they
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