The room began to swim around Hendley, and the immense figure blurred into a great gray mass bending over him. He grasped for the top of the desk but his fingers slipped on the smooth surface and he knew that he was falling, and as he fell the gates in a great wall opened for him and he toppled through. He felt a wild surge of exhilaration, but then he was spinning through a dazzling whiteness that was like the naked sun, and at the end of the white tunnel a brisk, tight-lipped, white-robed nurse moved toward him with a giant needle. A sense of outrage engulfed him. He cried out: "I've been drugged!" Then he was shooting toward a tiny pinpoint of darkness at the end of the white tunnel. He threaded the black hole neatly with his body and emerged into total darkness.... * * * * * "You will answer my questions as directly as possible," the Investigator said. "Do you understand me?" "Yes." "Now then--tell me what you think of the Merger." He groped for words. It was terribly important to answer the questioner truthfully. The need to talk was irresistible. His mind was like a dam whose floodgates were slowly opening. A torrent of words surged toward the widening gap, spilling through one by one, then with gathering force and relentless pressure, gushing out, a cascade of words so wonderful to speak, so compelling.... The eruption of words slowed and at last was still. "You had never seen this woman before then?" the Investigator asked. Such a calm voice, so marvelously soothing! "No." "Yet you were willing to risk everything to take her outside?" "It was beautiful out there. I--I found something. It was like--freedom." "Ah!" The quiet voice breathed satisfaction. "We gave ourselves so completely. I never felt so complete, so--so free!" "You want freedom very much, don't you?" "Yes. I--I think so." "This woman--you kept calling her Ann. What is her real name? Do you remember it?" A struggle was taking place deep in the recesses of Hendley's being. He wanted to speak, to answer, but something was straining to contain the words. Her name--her number.... "What was her real name?" "It was"--the word burst out--"Ann!" "Ann?" The Investigator frowned. "That's all she told you?" "Yes." The struggle was renewed. Inwardly Hendley writhed. He wanted to speak truthfully, to murmur the complete name: ABC-331. It beat against his skull, waiting only for the question to be repeated. If the Investigator would only ask once more he could speak and end this terrible pressure. "Hmmm. Clever of her," the Investigator said. "It will be difficult to trace her without the complete name. But of course she knew that. Some of them are very cunning."