"You are heading due west, on Street 751 West, at a speed of three and six tenths miles per hour." It seemed cold. The mechanoids did not have thermostat stations, for they did not need them. He shivered slightly. "You are now two miles from zone. The time is eleven-forty-five p.m." _The lights. Watch the lights._ "Please submit any request for information here." He was panting, and his legs felt weak. "There is an autocar...." It was useless. Shutting his eyes tight, he stopped. "All right. Let's go." * * * * * "Good evening," said Mr. Third. Sethos seated himself in a contour chair in the center of the softly lighted office. From behind a curving desk, the brain of a slender metal cylinder observed the young man before it, checked by radio with five Mr. Tenths in the space of three and one fifth seconds as to the incident's details. Then Mr. Third folded his plastic arms and studied the short brown hair and dark eyes, the lean face and straight nose. Human features always fascinated him. "I'm the human coordinator, Sethos. You know why you're here, don't you?" Sethos nodded. "Everyone learns that sometime," Mr. Third remarked. "In a certain number of births there is a percentage who are of higher intelligence. These are the restless ones whom we cannot discourage developmentally as easily as the others. They usually have to request therapy to adjust. So your case is not new." Sethos lit a cigarette. He knew the story, but coming from a third level prime mechanoid it was all the more impressive. "All right, I'm inquisitive. Why must we have therapy? Why do we have to stay in our zone?" Mr. Third paused. He recognized challenge in the young man before him, and tried to estimate his will power. "Did you know that there was on the earth, long ago, lower forms of life called animals? And that man once specified these and contained them in cages, from which they were denied exit?" "I have read of their place in our biological evolution, but of course they are before the time of records." "Well, we know very little about this practice or its use, but it's similar to what we have here, I believe. We mechanoids are not concerned with history, having only one structural law which was built into us by your ancestors, and it cannot be superseded. We must preserve man in the state he existed when we were created. We cannot impede his activities--unless they peril his stability, which we maintain precisely, as you know. It is impossible, you see, for us to allow man to change or expand. We have fulfilled that obligation, and continue to fulfill it. There are no alternatives whatever." "I can't see what they had in mind when they made you that way. It sounds insane."