Benton forced his mind into safe channels. Once more it had almost run away with him. The completion of his plan was so imminent that already he felt a surge of nostalgia. His work had been exactly to his liking, as no other could ever be; and certainly Dr. Albie, while not a gregarious man, was without peer as a colleague. His strict emotional control and the virtue of carefully weighing many sides of a question before making a decision occasionally irked the more mercurial Benton; but generous compensation was provided in the fact that the doctor leaned over backward rather than take advantage of his position as nominal head of the operating staff of Urei. He rated Benton as his equal, for to the doctor nobody could be inferior by reason of position. As the afternoon wore on Benton felt his nervous tension mount to heights he had never thought possible. Not, that is, and retain his sanity. Yet he worked coolly, in rigid control of his thoughts every instant. That, of course, and the necessity for trigger alertness as he waited for the sound of the gong, accounted for the rising tension. Benton didn't dare think of his next step; yet he must be ready for it momentarily. There would be no more than five minutes in which to act when the signal came, and he hadn't as yet allowed the thought of that action to enter his mind! Benton knew that he would do the right thing when the time came; there was no necessity for him to crystallize the thought or to plan the action. Sometime in the half-awake-half-asleep hours he had spent working circuit equations that morning, the plan had reached that stage and he had allowed it to go no further. He reached a point, at about three o'clock, when it seemed that ten minutes more would bring a complete breakdown of his defense mechanism. Benton never discovered whether he would reach that ultimate for at exactly three someone energized Circuit No. 13 and the gong sounded. As if he hadn't been waiting for that very thing Benton stood paralyzed for several seconds. Then abruptly he sprang into action. Urei was dead at the moment, but he wouldn't stay that way long; and it was during this short interval that Benton must reach the power-house and pull the main switch. * * * * * Benton raced along a corridor, tore through a storeroom, ripped frantically at steel doors with a haste that almost dislocated his arms, then fumbled with a bunch of keys as he was confronted by the power-house portal. There were two doors, of course; the first opened upon the anteroom in which was stored the lead armor needed to enter the room containing the atomic pile which furnished Urei's power. Benton ignored the armor standing against the walls. A long stride carried him past it to the alcove in which was set the final door, of massive lead.