'Ah ... yes,' Dooley said.

'I'm afraid I've been somewhat of a nosey Parker, a peeping Tom and several other categories of snoop where the Pan-Spechi are concerned,' McKie said. 'But it was because I suspected the act of sabotage to which I've referred here. The Tax Watchers revealed too much inside knowledge of the Bureau of Sabotage.'

'I ... ah ... am not quite sure I understand you,' Dooley said.

'The best kept secret in the universe, the Pan-Spechi cyclic change of gender and ident.i.ty, is no longer a secret where I'm concerned,' McKie said. He swallowed as he saw Bolin's fingers go white where they tightly gripped the prosecution table.

'It relates to the issue at hand?' Dooley asked.

'Most definitely, Your Honor,' McKie said. 'You see, the Pan-Spechi have a unique gland that controls mentation, dominance, the relationship between reason and instinct. The five group mates are, in reality, one person. I wish to make that clear for reasons of legal necessity.'

'Legal necessity?' Dooley asked. He glanced down at the obviously distressed Bolin, back to McKie.

'The gland, when it's functioning, confers ego dominance on the Pan-Spechi in whom it functions. But it functions for a time that's definitely limited - twenty-five to thirty years.' McKie looked at Bolin. Again, the Pan-Spechi was trembling. 'Please understand, Ser Bolin,' he said, 'that I do this out of necessity and that this is not an act of sabotage.'

Bolin lifted his face toward McKie. The Pan-Spechi's features appeared contorted in grief. 'Get it over with, man!' he rasped.

'Yes,' McKie said, turning back to the judge's puzzled face. 'Ego transfer in the Pan-Spechi, Your Honor, involves a transfer of what may be termed basic-experience-learning. It's accomplished through physical contractor when the ego holder dies, no matter how far he may be separated from the creche, this seems to fire up the eldest of the creche triplets. The ego-single also bequeaths a verbal legacy to his mate whenever possible - and that's most of the time. Specifically, it's this time.'

Dooley leaned back. He was beginning to see the legal question McKie's account had posed.

'The act of sabotage which might make a Pan-Spechi eligible for appointment as Secretary of the Bureau of Sabotage was initiated by a ... ah ... cell mate of the Ser Bolin in court today, is that it?' Dooley asked.

McKie wiped his brow. 'Correct, Your Honor.'

'But that cell mate is no longer the ego dominant, eh?'

'Quite right, Your Honor!'

'The ... ah ... former ego holder, this ... ah ... Bildoon, is no longer eligible?'

'Bildoon, or what was once Bildoon, is a creature operating solely on instinct now, Your Honor,' McKie said. 'Capable of acting as creche nurse for a time and, eventually, fulfilling another destiny I'd rather not explain.'

'I see.' Dooley looked at the weather cover of the court arena. He was beginning to see what McKie had risked here. 'And you favor this, ah, Ser Bolin's bid for the Secretariat?' Dooley asked.

'If President Bindley and the Cabinet follow the recommendation of the Bureau's senior agents, the procedure always followed in the past, Ser Bolin will be the new Secretary,' McKie said. 'I favor this.'

'Why?' Dooley asked.

'Because of this unique roving ego, the Pan-Spechi have a more communal att.i.tude toward fellow sentients than do most other species admitted to the concourse of humanity,' McKie said. 'This translates as a sense of responsibility toward all life. They're not necessarily maudlin about it. They oppose where it's necessary to build strength. Their creche life demonstrates several clear examples of this which I'd prefer not to describe.'

'I see,' Dooley said, but he had to admit to himself that he did not. McKie's allusions to unspeakable practices were beginning to annoy him. 'And you feel that this Bildoon-Bolin act of sabotage qualifies him, provided this court rules they are one and the same person?'

'We're not the same person!' Bolin cried. 'You don't dare say that ... that shambling, clinging ... '

'Easy,' McKie said. 'Ser Bolin, I'm sure you see the need for this legal fiction.'

'Legal fiction,' Bolin said as though clinging to the words. The multi-faceted eyes glared across the courtarena at McKie. 'Thank you for the verbal nicety, McKie.'

'You've not answered my question, Ser McKie,' Dooley said, ignoring the exchange with Bolin.

'Sabotaging Ser Watt through an attack on the entire Bureau contains subtlety and finesse never before achieved in such an effort,' McKie said. 'The entire Bureau will be strengthened by it.'

McKie glanced at Watt. The acting Secretary's medusa tangle had ceased its writhing. He was staring at Bolin with a speculative look in his eyes. Sensing the quiet in the court-arena, he glanced up at McKie.

'Don't you agree, Ser Watt?' McKie asked.

'Oh, yes. Quite,' Watt said.

The note of sincerity in Watt's voice startled the judge. For the first time, he wondered at the dedication which these men brought to their jobs.

'Sabotage is a very sensitive Bureau,' Dooley said. 'I've some serious reservations -'

'If Your Honor please,' McKie said, 'forbearance is one of the chief attributes a saboteur can bring to his duties. Now, I wish you to understand what our Pan-Spechi friend has done here this day. Let us suppose that I had spied upon the most intimate moments between you, Judge, and your wife, and that I reported them in detail here in open court with half the universe looking on. Let us suppose further that you had the strictest moral code against such discussions with outsiders. Let us suppose that I made these disclosures in the basest terms with every four-letter word at my command. Let us suppose that you were armed, traditionally, with a deadly weapon to strike at such blasphemers, such -'

'Filth!' Bolin grated.

'Yes,' McKie said. 'Filth. Do you suppose, Your Honor, that you could have stood by without killing me?'

'Good heavens!' Dooley said.

Chapter V.

'Ser Bolin,' McKie said, 'I offer you and all your race my most humble apologies.'

'I'd hoped once to undergo the ordeal in the privacy of a judge's chambers with as few outsiders as possible,' Bolin said. 'But once you were started in open court ... '

'It had to be this way,' McKie said. 'If we'd done it in private, people would've come to be suspicious about a Pan-Spechi in control of ... '

'People?' Bolin asked.

'Non Pan-Spechi,' McKie said. 'It'd have been a barrier between our species.

'And we've been strengthened by all this,' McKie said. 'Those provisions of the Const.i.tution that provide the people with a slowly moving government have been demonstrated anew. We've admitted the public to the inner workings of Sabotage, shown them the valuable character of the man who'll be the new Secretary.'

'I've not yet ruled on the critical issue here,' Dooley said.

'But Your Honor!' McKie said.

'With all due respect to you as a saboteur extraordinary, Ser McKie,' Dooley said, 'I'll make my decision on evidence gathered under my direction.' He looked at Bolin. 'Ser Bolin, would you permit an agent of this court to gather such evidence as will allow me to render verdict without fear of harming my own species?'

'We're humans together,' Bolin growled.

'But terranic humans hold the balance of power,' Dooley said. 'I owe allegiance to law, yes, but my terranic fellows depend on me, too. I have a ... '

'You wish your own agents to determine if Ser McKie has told the truth about us?'

'Ah ... yes,' Dooley said.

Bolin looked at McKie. 'Ser McKie, it is I who apologize to you. I had not realized how deeply xenophobia penetrated your fellows.'

'Because,' McKie said, 'outside of your natural modesty, you have no such fear. I suspect you know the phenomenon only through reading of us.'

'But all strangers are potential sharers of ident.i.ty,' Bolin said. 'Ah, well.'

'If you're through with your little chat,' Dooley said, 'would you care to answer my question, Ser Bolin?

This is still I hope, a court of law.'

'Tell me, Your Honor,' Bolin said, 'would you permit me to witness the tenderest intimacies between you and your wife?'

Dooley's face darkened, but he saw suddenly in all of its stark detail the extent of McKie's a.n.a.logy and it was to the judge's credit that he rose to the occasion. 'If it were necessary to promote understanding,'

he rasped, 'yes!'

'I believe you would,' Bolin murmured. He took a deep breath. 'After what I've been through here today, one more sacrifice can be borne, I guess. I grant your investigators the privilege requested, but advise that they be discreet.'

'It will strengthen you for the trials ahead as Secretary of the Bureau,' McKie said. 'The Secretary, you must bear in mind, has no immunities from sabotage whatsoever.'

'But,' Bolin said, 'the Secretary's legal orders carrying out his Const.i.tutional functions must be obeyed by all agents.'

McKie nodded, seeing in the glitter of Bolin's eyes, a vista of peeping Tom a.s.signments with endless detailed reports to the Secretary of Sabotage - at least until the fellow's curiosity had been satisfied and his need for revenge satiated.

But the others in the court-room, not having McKie's insight, merely wondered at the question:What did he really mean by that?