Virginia Merrick shook her head. "The stone got too hot for them to handle, so they've thrown it to you." "But Erikson, himself! The very man who organized the Human Supremacy Party and the Antirobot League! If he sets foot within the Creche it will mean an end to everything!" The woman lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. "We can't keep him out and you know it. There's an army of Fanatics gathering out there in the hills this very minute. Armed with cortical-stimulant projectors, Han. That isn't a pleasant way to die--" Merrick studied his wife carefully. There was fear under her iron control. She was thinking of the shattering pain of death under the projectors. Nothing else, really. The Creche didn't matter to her. The Creche didn't really matter to any of the staff. Three hundred years ago it would have been different. The custodians of the Creche would have gladly died to preserve their trust in those times.... What irony, Merrick thought, that it should come like this. He knew what the projectors did to men. He also knew what they did to robots. "If they dare to use their weapons on us it will wipe out every vestige of control work done here since the beginning," he said softly. "They have no way of knowing that." "Nor would they believe it if we told them." "And that brings us right back to where we started. You can't keep Erikson out, and the Council of Ten has left us on our own. They don't dare oppose the Fanatics. But there's an old political maxim you would do well to consider very carefully since it's our only hope, Han," Virginia Merrick said, "'If you can't beat someone--join him.'" * * * * * She dragged deeply on her cigarette, blue smoke curling from her gold-tinted lips. "This has been coming on for ten years. I tried to warn you then, but you wouldn't listen. Remember?" How like a woman, Merrick thought bitterly, to be saying I told you so. "What would you have me do, Virginia?" he asked, "Help the bigot peddle his robot-hate? That can't be the way. Don't you feel anything at all when the reports of pogroms come in?" Virginia Merrick shrugged. "Better they than we, Han." "Has it occurred to you that our whole culture might collapse if Erikson has his way?" "Antirobotism is natural to human beings. Compromise is the only answer. Precautions have to be taken--" "_Precautions_!" exploded Merrick. "What sort of precautions can be taken against pure idiocy?" "The founding board of Psychotechnicians--" "No help from that source. You know that I've always felt the whole premise was questionable. On the grounds of common fairness, if nothing else." "Really, Han," Virginia snapped, "It was the only thing to do and you know it. The Creche is the only safeguard the race has." "Now you sound like the Prophet. In reverse." "We needn't argue the point." "No, I suppose not," the Director muttered.