Beth said, "Major Abner Harris, formerly Aar Khiilom of Darruu--this is Paul Coburn of Medlin Intelligence and David Wrynn of Earth." "A real Earthman? Not a phony like the rest of us?" Wrynn smiled pleasantly and said, "I assure you I'm a home-grown product, Major Harris." His voice was like the mellow boom of a well-tuned cello. The Darruui folded his arms. "Well. How nice of you to introduce us all. Now what?" "Still belligerent," he heard Beth murmur to the other Medlin, Coburn. Coburn nodded. The giant Earthman merely looked unhappy in a calm sort of way. Harris eyed them all coldly. "If you're going to torture me, why not get started with it?" "Who said anything about torture?" Beth asked. "Why else would you bring me here? Obviously you want to wring information from me. Well, go ahead. I'm ready for you." Coburn chuckled and fingered his double chins. "Don't you think we know that torture's useless on you? That if we tried any kind of forcible neural extraction of information from your mind your memory-chambers would automatically short-circuit?" Harris' jaw dropped. "How did you know--" He stopped. The Medlins evidently had a fantastically efficient spy service. The filter-circuit in his brain was a highly secret development. Beth said, "Relax and listen to us. We aren't out to torture you. We know already all you can tell us." "Doubtful. But go ahead and talk." "We know how many Darruui are on Earth. And we know approximately where they are. We'd like you to serve as a contact-man for us." "And do what?" "Kill the other nine Darruui on Earth," Beth said simply. Harris smiled. "Is there any special reason why I should do this?" "For the good of the universe." He laughed derisively. "For the good of Medlin, you mean." "No. Listen to me. When we arrived on Earth--it was years ago, by the way--we quickly discovered that a new race was evolving here. A super-race, you might say. One with abnormal physical and mental powers. But in most cases children of this new race were killed or mentally stunted before they reached maturity. People tend to resent being made obsolete--and even a super-child is unable to defend himself until he's learned how. By then it's usually too late." It was a nice fairy-tale, Harris thought. He made no comment, but listened with apparent interest. Beth continued, "We discovered isolated members of this new race here and there on Earth. We decided to _help_ them--knowing they would help us, some day, when it became necessary. We protected these children. We brought them together and raised them in safety. David Wrynn here is one of our first discoveries." Harris glanced at the big Earthman. "So you're a superman?" Wrynn smiled. "I'm somewhat better equipped for life than most other Earthmen. My children will be as far beyond me as I am beyond my parents."