"Stop her, Secretary Bartlett! She's malfunctioning. We've all been ordered to wait outside for an ID check." I ignored him and he yelled again. "Guard, open fire on the girl. Don't let her get inside that door!" But he was too late. Meta disappeared through the door into the black building. I stepped inside just as it slammed shut and the first missile smashed against the door from the guard's weapon. The building was not large. The Master Machine squatted like a huge, thick-bodied black spider in the center of the building. A cobweb of power lines and control cables criss-crossed the floor and fed into the base of the unit. A myriad of tiny moving parts, levers and cams and elbowed arms and gears pulsed and shifted and moved to give the impression that the Master Machine was breathing, that it was alive. Tiny multicolored lights twinkled on and off. Giant vacuum tubes hummed and glowed. And all the while, it munched on endless tapes. The black monster was the heart of Earth's civilization, and it was the means of it. As I started toward the machine, a grid at the top turned slowly and ogled me. Almost immediately, a red tube blinked on, and the moving parts on one section of the machine plunged into a frenzied rhythm of action. I ran forward, breathing heavily under the strain of the unaccustomed gravity. I had only seconds in which to act. At any moment, Senator Chambers and the guards would be coming through the door behind me. I raised the cane and touched the stud. The finger of lavender light knifed toward the machine, searching for its heart and memory unit. The ray fused and melted and burned, cutting deeper and deeper into the maze of wires and tubes and relays. There was a blinding flash and one section of the machine ground to a stop. Other sections immediately increased their tempo of movement. Behind me the door slammed open, and Senator Chambers and two guards stumbled into the building. Chambers yelled, "He's over there in front of the Master Machine. Hurry up ... and ... shoot! Before it's ... too late! _Shoot!_" His face almost a cherry red, Chambers danced out of the way. The guards raised their weapons and sighted. Then the ray from my cane cut deeply into the very innermost section of the master unit and the machine died. A dial on the front of the blackened, twisted mess spun slowly to a stop. There was no more noise and no more movement. It was done. * * * * * As I released the stud on the cane, the weapons of the guards were pointed directly at my back. Chambers' eyes were like two black marbles, staring at me, his head strained forward to watch the results of the missiles. I took a careful step to the left. And another. And then another. They didn't move. The guards' weapons remained trained on the spot where I had been standing. Senator Chambers continued staring at the place where I had been.