He glanced around. "Uh-huh.... Dome at the bottom of an ocean basin wasn't at all a bad headquarters under the circumstances. What put you and Dr. Ben to sleep was light-shock." He handed her the glass. "Light-shock?" Arlene repeated. "Something new," Harding said. "Developed--in another security island project--for the specific purpose of resolving hypnotic compulsions, including the very heavy type implanted by the rogue. He doesn't seem to have been aware of that project, or else he regarded it as one of our less important efforts which he could afford to ignore for the present. Anyway, light-shock does do the job, and very cleanly, though it knocks the patient out for a while in the process. That side effect isn't too desirable, but so far it's been impossible to avoid." "I see," Arlene said. She took a cautious swallow of the whisky and set the glass down as her eyes began to water. * * * * * Frank Harding leaned back against the table and folded his arms. He scowled thoughtfully down at her. "We managed to get two persons who were suspected of being the rogue's unconscious stooges to the island," he said, "and tried light-shock out on them. It worked and didn't harm them, so we decided to use it here. Lowry will wake up in another hour at the latest and be none the worse. Of course, neither of you will remember what happened while the rogue had you under control, but...." "You're quite wrong about that," Arlene told him. "I don't remember all of it, but I'm still very much aware of perhaps half of what happened--though I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer to forget it. It was like an extremely unpleasant nightmare." Harding looked surprised. "That's very curious! The other cases reported complete amnesia. Perhaps you...." "You've been under a heavy strain yourself, haven't you, Frank?" she asked. He hesitated. "I? What makes you think so?" "You're being rather gabby. It isn't like you." Harding grunted. "I suppose you're right. This thing's been tense enough. _He_ may have enjoyed it--except naturally at the very end. Playing cat and mouse with the whole human race! Well, the mice turned out to be a little too much for him, after all. But of course nothing was certain until that last moment." "Because none of you could be sure of anyone else?" "That was it mainly. This was one operation where actually nobody _could_ be in charge completely or completely trusted. There were overlaps for everything, and no one knew what all of them were. When Weldon came here today, he turned on a pocket transmitter so that everything that went on while he was being instructed in the use of the diex projector would be monitored outside.