"The h.e.l.l I am," Malone said, and proceeded to prove his point. Some minutes later they relaxed.
"Mike," Dorothea said. "What?"
"Mike," she said. "He"s probably the happiest of all. After Mom and I talked to him for a while, anyhow, and he began to lose that--that _trapped_ feeling. Now he"s all excited about being an FBI man." She looked worriedly at Malone for a second. "You weren"t kidding about that, were you?" she said.
She looked very pretty when she was worried. Malone leaned over and kissed her with great care. After a second, the kiss seemed to gain momentum on its own, and all restraint went by the wayside. A long time pa.s.sed.
Then, as Malone pulled away and began to recover his breath, he said weakly, "You were saying?"
"Was I?" Dorothea said. "Oh, yes. I was. About Mike being an FBI man."
"Oh," Malone said. "Well, normally you"ve got to be a lawyer or an accountant, but there are a few special cases. And maybe Mike would fit into the special-case bracket. If he doesn"t--well, he"ll be doing some sort of official work for the Government. You can be sure of that."
"That woman in the costume--the one you call Your Majesty--certainly threw a scare into the boys," Dorothea said.
"Well," Malone said, "we had to prove one thing to them. We can pick them up at any time. You see, they"ve got to think about where they"re teleporting, and as soon as they do that one of our telepaths--like the Queen--will know where they"re going to be. And we can crack down."
"That"s what she said," Dorothea said.
"Right," Malone said. "After all, we did them quite a favor--getting them out of all the trouble they"d gotten themselves into. If they try to--"
"That reminds me, Ken," Dorothea said. "All the things that were stolen. The liquor and all of that, Money. What"s going to happen to that?"
"Well," Malone said, "everything that can be returned--and that includes most of the liquor, because they hadn"t had a chance to get rid of it to the bootleggers around this area--will be returned. What can"t be returned--money, stuff that they"ve used, broken, or sold--well, I don"t exactly know about that. It might take a special act of Congress," he said brightly.
"All for the boys?" Dorothea said.
"Well, they"ll be at Yucca Flats, and they"ll be pretty useful,"
Malone said. "And, as I was saying, if they try to run away from Yucca Flats, we"ll just have to keep them drugged all the time, little as we want to. They can be of some use that way, too. The Government isn"t doing all this for nothing."
"But keeping them drugged--"
"I said we didn"t want to do it. And I don"t think we"ll have to.
They"ll be well taken care of, don"t worry. Some of the best psychiatrists and doctors are out there. And Mike and the others--if they can show they"re trustworthy--can come home every weekend, or even every night if they can teleport that far." Malone paused. "But it isn"t charity," he added. "We need people with specialized psionic abilities--and, for a variety of reasons, they"re pretty hard to find."
"You know," Dorothea said, "you"re pretty wonderful, Mr. Malone."
Malone didn"t answer her. He just kissed her again, not caring particularly whether or not the kiss went wild.
Dorothea pushed him gently away. "I"m envious," she announced.
"Everybody gets a reward but me. Do I get left out just because I swiped your notebook?"
Malone kissed her again. "What kind of a reward do you want?" he asked.
She sighed. "Oh, well," she said. "I suppose this is good enough."
"Good enough?" Malone said. "Just good enough?"
His lips met hers for the fifth time. She reached one hand gently out to the light switch and pushed it.
The lights went out.