"I know." He grinned widely. "And you don't want any back talk from me! Yok-yok-yok! Just wait'll I show you!" In his hands, he held an object which Lenny did not at first understand. Then Rafe's mind brought it into focus. "This"--Rafe held it up--"is a rocket motor!" "Rafe, wake up!" Lenny said. The surroundings stabilized a little more. "I will in just a minute, Lenny." Rafe was apologetic. "But let me show you this." It did bear some resemblance to a rocket motor. It was about as long as a man's forearm and consisted of a bulbous chamber at one end, which narrowed down into a throat and then widened into a hornlike exhaust nozzle. The chamber was black; the rest was shiny chrome. Rafe grasped it by the throat with one hand. The other, he clasped firmly around the combustion chamber. "Watch! Now watch!" He gave the bulbous, rubbery chamber a hard squeeze-- "_SQUAWK!_" went the horn. "Rafe!" Lenny shouted. "Wake up! WAKE UP!" Rafe blinked as the situation clarified. "What? Just A Second. Lenny. Just...." * * * * * "... _A second._" Raphael Poe blinked his eyes open. The moon was shining through the dirty windows of the dingy little room that was all he could call home--for a while, at least. Outside the window were the gray streets of Moscow. His brother's thoughts resounded in his fully awake brain. _Rafe! You awake?_ _Sure. Sure. What is it?_ The conversation that followed was not in words or pictures, but a weird combination of both, plus a strong admixture of linking concepts that were neither. In essence, Lenny merely reported that he had taken the day off to go to the races and that Colonel Spaulding was evidently upset for some reason. He wondered if Rafe were in any kind of trouble. _No trouble. Everything's fine at this end. But Dr. Malekrinova won't be back on the job until tomorrow afternoon--or,_ this _afternoon, rather._ _I know_, Lenny replied. _That's why I figured I could take time off for a go at the ponies._ _I wonder why they're in such a fuss, then?_ Rafe thought. _I'll let you know when I find out_, Lenny said. _Go back to sleep and don't worry._ [Illustration] * * * * * In a small office in the Pentagon, Colonel Julius T. Spaulding cradled the telephone on his desk and looked at the Secretary of Defense. "That was the airfield. Poe will be here shortly. We'll get to the bottom of this pretty quickly." "I hope so, Julius," the Secretary said heavily. "The president is beginning to think we're both nuts." The colonel, a lean, nervous man with dark, bushy eyebrows and a mustache to match, rolled his eyes up toward the ceiling. "I'm beginning to agree with him." The Defense Secretary scowled at him. "What do you mean?" "Anybody who takes telepathy seriously is considered a nut," said the colonel. "True," said the Secretary, "but that doesn't mean we _are_ nuts."