The notion of killing Fredericks--using his telekinetic powers to collapse the hotel room on the man, or some such, even if he wasn't allowed to bear arms--had occurred to him in a desperate second, and Donegan had turned it down very flatly. "Look," the Psi Section chief had told him, "you got the guy's brother and sent him up for trial. The jury found him guilty of murder, first degree, no recommendation for mercy. The judge turned him over to the chair, and he fries next week." "So let Fredericks take it out on the judge and jury," he'd said. "Why do I have to be the sitting duck?" "Because ... well, from Fredericks' point of view, without you his brother might never have been caught. It's logic--of a sort." "Logic, hell," he said. "The guy was guilty. I had to send him up. That's my job." "And so is this," Donegan said. "That's our side of it. Fredericks has friends--his brother's friends. Petty criminals, would-be criminals, unbalanced types. You know that. You've read the record." "Read it?" he said. "I dug up half of it." Donegan nodded. "Sure," he said. "And we're going to have six more cases like Fredericks' brother--murder, robbery, God knows what else--unless we can choke them off somehow." "Crime prevention," he said. "And I'm in the middle." "That's the way the job is," Donegan said. "We're not superman. We've got limits, just like everybody else. Our talents have limits." He nodded. "So?" "So," Donegan said, "we've got to convince Fredericks' friends--the unbalanced fringe--that we are supermen, that we have no limits, that no matter what they try against us they're bound to fail." "Nice trick," he said sourly. "Very nice," Donegan said. "And what's more, it works. Nobody except an out-and-out psychotic commits a crime when he hasn't got a hope of success. And these people aren't psychotics; most criminals aren't. Show them they can't get away with a thing--show them we're infallible, all-knowing, all-powerful supermen--and they'll be scared off trying anything." "But killing Fredericks would do that just as well--" he began. Donegan shook his head. "Now, hold on," he said. "You're getting all worked up about this. It's your first time with this stakeout business, that's all. But you can't kill him. You can't kill except when really necessary. You know that." "All right. But if he's going to kill me--" "That doesn't make it necessary, not this time," Donegan said. "This vengeance syndrome doesn't last forever, you know. Block it, and you're through with it. And think how much more effective it is, letting Fredericks go back alive to tell the tale." "Think how much more effective it would be," he said, "if Fredericks managed to get me." "He won't," Donegan said. "But without weapons--" "No Psi Operative carries weapons," Donegan said. "We don't need them. We're supermen ... remember?" He twisted his face with a smile. "Easy for you to talk about it," he said. "But I'm going to have to go out and face it--"