She sat down. On his lap.

“I have to go back to that night,” he said.

“In Beaumont House?”

He nodded.

“lt’s not easy to talk about.”

“It won’t take a minute. Now… You were lying in bed, asleep. Suddenly you woke up and rushed into the Orchid room. You remember the rest.”

“I remember.”

“One question. What was the cry that woke you?”

“You know.”

“I know, but I want you to say it. Say it out loud.”

“Do you think it’s… it’s going to send me into hysteria again?”

“No. Just say it.”

After a long pause, she said in a low voice: “Help, Barbara.”

He nodded again. “Who shouted that?”

“Why, it was—” Suddenly she stopped.

“It wasn’t Ben Reich. He wouldn’t be yelling for help. He didn’t need help. Who did?”

“My… My father.”

“But he couldn’t speak, Barbara. His throat was gone… Cancer. He couldn’t utter a word.”

“I heard him.”

“You peeped him.”

She stared; then she shook her head. “No, I—”

“You peeped him,” Powell repeated gently. “You’re a latent Esper. Your father cried out on the telepathic level. If I hadn’t been such an ass and so intent on Reich, I’d have realized it long before. You were unconsciously peeping Mary and me all the while you were in my house.”

She couldn’t grasp it.

“Do you love me?” Powell shot at her.

“I love you, of course,” she muttered, “but I think you’re inventing excuses to—”

“Who asked you?”

“Asked me what?”

“If you loved me.”

“Why you just—” She stopped, then tried again.

“You said… Y-You…”

“I didn’t say it. Do you understand now? We won’t have to settle for anything short of us.”

Seconds later, it seemed, but it was actually half an hour, they were separated by a violent crash that sounded from the top of the terrace above their heads. They looked up in astonishment.

A naked thing appeared on the stone wall, gibbering, screaming, twitching. It toppled over the edge and crashed down through the flower beds until it landed on the lawn, crying and jerking as though a steady stream of voltage was pouring through its nervous system. It was Ben Reich, almost unrecognizable, part way through Demolition.

Powell swung Barbara to him with her back to Reich. He took her chin in his hand and said: “Are you still my girl?”

She nodded.

“I don’t want you to see this. It isn’t dangerous, but it isn’t good for you. Will you run back to your pavilion and wait for me? Like a good girl? All right… Scamper now! Jet!”

She grabbed his hand, kissed it quickly, and ran across the lawn without once looking back. Powell watched her go, then turned and inspected Reich.

When a man is demolished at Kingston Hospital, his entire psyche is destroyed. The series of osmotic injections begins with the topmost strata of cortical synapses and slowly works down, switching off every circuit, extinguishing every memory, destroying every particle of the pattern that has been built up since birth. And as the pattern is erased, each particle discharges its portion of energy, turning the entire body into a shuddering maelstrom of dissociation.