Jon Senesin sat in a soft chair, his hands gripping at the arms as though it might at any time fall from under him. He looked at the three other men in the room. His father, Lord Senesin, looking rather tired, but with a slight smile on his lantern-jawed face, sat on his son's left. One hand ran nervously through his gray hair. On Jon's right sat the colonel, looking cool, unperturbed, and very gentle. Between them sat the Emperor. Jon's face looked pale, and there was a slight nervous tic at the corner of his mouth. "I ... I don't understand," he said. "I--" He swallowed hard as his voice failed him. "Nothing hard to understand, son," said the colonel mildly. "We've been looking for evidence to break up the Federalists for several years. Some of them are honest men who are simply against any kind of hereditary monarchy--we'll let them go eventually. Some of them are fanatics--the kind that is against any form of government that happens to be in power; they'll get psychiatric treatment. But the leaders of the group are agents of the Gehan Federation. My men are picking them up now. The man that contacted you and me last night was arrested within two minutes after we left." "But--the _evidence_! Those tapes. The documents. They all seemed genuine. They seemed so convincing." "They should be convincing, Jon," said Lord Senesin in his smooth oratorical baritone. "You see, they are perfectly true." Jon Senesin looked at his father as though the older man had suddenly sprouted an extra set of ears. "Y ... You've been brainwashed?" The Prime Portfolio shook his head. "No, son, not that. Did you see anything like that on the tapes?" "N-no. But the others. Fileman Brenner, Portfolio for Defense Vane, General Finster--all of them. I thought--" "You thought wrong, son," said Lord Senesin. "I am and always have been working loyally with His Majesty. He gives the orders, and I carry them out." Jon's voice became taut. "You mean you're helping him? You're trying to get the Empire into a war with the Gehan Federation so that _he_ can become another dictator, like Jerris the First?" He kept his eyes carefully averted from the Emperor as he spoke. Thus he didn't notice that His Majesty looked at Colonel Sorban with an expression that said, "You're right. He does have guts." Lord Senesin said: "No, son; I'm not working toward that at all. Neither is His Majesty. There would be no point in it." Then, for the first time, the Emperor spoke. His voice was soft, but commanding. "Mr. Senesin, let me explain something to you." Jon Senesin's head jerked around. There was a confused mixture of fear and determination on his face.