"Good. Prepare for me the usual visa that a woman clerk needs for passage to the offices of the Occupational Commandant." The inquisitor filled in blanks in a stiff sheet of paper and stamped a seal at its bottom. "You will add in the portion reserved for 'comments', the following: 'Capable clerk. Others will follow as they are found available.'" The man's pen scratched away obediently. Evelyn Kane smiled gently at the impotent, inwardly raging inquisitor. She took the paper, folded it, and placed it in a pocket in her blouse. "Call the guards," she ordered. He pressed the button on his desk, and the guards re-entered. "This person is no longer a prisoner," said the inquisitor woodenly. "She is to take the next transport to the Occupational Commandant of Zone One." When the transport had left, neither inquisitor nor guards had any memory of the woman. However, in the due course of events, the recording was gathered up with many others like it, boxed carefully, and sent to the Office of the Occupational Commandant, Zone One, for auditing. * * * * * Evelyn was extremely careful with her mental probe as she descended from the transport. The Occupational Commandant would undoubtedly be high-born and telepathic. He must not have occasion to suspect a similar ability in a mere clerk. Fighting had passed this way, too, and recently. Many of the buildings were still smoking, and many of the radions high above were either shot out or obscured by slowly drifting dust clouds. The acrid odor of radiation-remover was everywhere. She caught the sound of spasmodic small-arm fire. "What is that?" she asked the transport attendant. "The Commandant is shooting prisoners," he replied laconically. "Oh." "Where did you want to go?" "To the personnel office." "That way." He pointed to the largest building of the group--two stories high, reasonably intact. She walked off down the gravel path, which was stained here and there with dark sticky red. She gave her visa to the guard at the door and was admitted to an improvised waiting room, where another guard eyed her stonily. The firing was much nearer. She recognized the obscene coughs of a Faeg pistol and began to feel sick. A woman in the green uniform of the Scythe auxiliary came in, whispered something to the guard, and then told Evelyn to follow her. In the anteroom a grey cat looked her over curiously, and Evelyn frowned. She might have to get rid of the cat if she stayed here. Under certain circumstances the animal could prove her deadliest enemy. The next room held a foppish little man, evidently a supervisor of some sort, who was studying her visa.