Roysland stepped back and sat on the edge of his desk. "Got all three of them?" "All three of them," said Eckisster emphatically. "Now, I'll send this report over to you immediately. We'll have to get some action. If the Enlissa can get in this close, they may decide to attack Kandoris itself! Your job is Special Weapons. Find a screen of some sort that will protect us from this--whatever it is." "Call it a mindjammer," Roysland said. "One of the inspectors used that word, and I kind of like it." "You like it." Eckisster's voice was cutting. "I don't like anything that does _that_ to a human brain. Get busy and find some way to beat it." Roysland started to explain that he liked the word--not the object--but the general director's image was already dissolving. Roysland stepped back behind his desk and dialed a number. A few seconds later, Bilford's image materialized. The nervous little man looked more nervous than ever. * * * * * "What is it, Roysland? More trouble? I hope not. I've had Eckisster on my neck all morning." "I know; I just got him off mine. But I wanted to ask you something. Is there any correlation between the frequencies that help those men and the frequency of the feedback circuit in their prefrontal lobes?" Bilford frowned in thought. "I don't know; I'd never thought of it from that angle. They don't have any obvious correlation, I can tell you that. I'll check on it, though. I'll run it through the differential analyzer." Roysland nodded. "Try that. Let me know if you get anything." He cut Bilford off and dialed another number. The image that appeared this time was wearing the uniform of a fleet commander. "Commander Allerdyce, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?" "Go ahead, Roysland. What is it? I hope you're not going to needle me the way your boss does. I'd have tossed him out of my office, except that you can't grab a solidiphone image. Best I could do was shut him off, which was very unsatisfactory." The commander grinned wryly at the thought. A big grin spread itself across Roysland's blocky face. "I know how you feel. No, commander, I just wanted to ask a couple of questions, as I said. "You're familiar with the details of the Enlissa attack on that medical supply convoy?" The fleet commander nodded. "Well," Roysland continued, "what would happen if you were in command of the cruiser and you found a trace on the scope that indicated an Enlissa ship?" "The orders cover that," said the commander. "The cruiser cuts in with the _aJ_ guns before the Enlissa ship gets within torpedo range." "And this always works?" The commander shrugged. "It always has so far, the _aJ's_ knock them out of space before they can get close enough to launch screenbuster torpedoes accurately. But this new gadget they've got evidently has as great a range as the _aJ_ projectors." "Or greater," Roysland added. "Yeah," said Allerdyce softly, "or greater."