“She can’t,” Powell decided.

“I am come here to you,” Chooka intoned in a hoarse voice, “to help you look into the deeps of your hearts. Look down into your hearts, you which are looking for…” Chooka hesitated, then ran on: “You which are looking for revenge on a man named Zerlen from Mars… For the love of a red-eyed woman of Callisto… For every credit of that rich old uncle in Paris… For…”

“Why, damn me! The woman’s a peeper!”

Chooka stiffened. Her mouth hung open.

“You’re receiving me, aren’t you, Chooka Frood?”

The telepathic answer came in frightened fragments. It was obvious that Chooka Frood’s natural ability had never been trained. “Wha…? Who? Which is… you?”

As carefully as if he were communicating with an infant 3^rd, Powell spelled it out: “Name: Lincoln Powell. Occupation: Police Prefect. Intent: To question a girl named Barbara D’Courtney. I have heard she’s participating in your act.” Powell transmitted a picture of the girl.

It was pathetic the way Chooka tried to block. “Get… out. Out. Out of here. Get. Get out. Out…”

“Why haven’t you come to the Guild? Why aren’t you in contact with your own people?”

“Get out. Out of here. Peeper! Get out.”

“You’re a peeper, too. Why haven’t you let us train you? What kind of a life is this for you? Mumbo Jumbo… Picking sucker brains and turning it all into a Fortune Act. There’s real work waiting for you, Chooka.”

“Real money?”

Powell repressed the wave of exasperation that rose up in him. It was not exasperation with Chooka. It was anger for the relentless force of evolution that insisted on endowing man with increased powers without removing the vestigial vices that prevented him from using them.

“We’ll talk about that later, Chooka. Where’s the girl?”

“No girl. There is no girl.”

“Don’t be an ass, Chooka. Peep the customers with me. That old goat obsessed with the red-eyed woman…” Powell explored him gently. “He’s been here before. He’s waiting for Barbara D’Courtney to come in. You dress her in sequins. You bring her on in half an hour. He likes her looks. She does some kind of trance routine to music. Her dress is slit open and he likes that. She—”

“He’s crazy. I never—”

“And the woman who was loused by a man named Zerlen? She’s seen the girl often. She believes in her. She’s waiting for her. Where’s the girl, Chooka?”

“No!”

“I see. Upstairs. Where, upstairs, Chooka? Don’t try to block, I’m deep peeping. You can’t misdirect a 1^st — I see. Fourth room on the left of the angle turn. That’s a complicated labyrinth you’ve got up there, Chooka. Let’s have it again to make sure…”

Helpless and mortified, Chooka suddenly shrieked:

“Get out of here, you goddam cop! Get the hell out of here!”

“Excuse it, please,” said Powell. “I’m on my way.”

He rose and left the room.

That entire telepathic investigation took place within the second it took Reich to move from the eighteenth to the twentieth step on his way down to Chooka Frood’s rainbow cellar. Reich heard Chooka’s furious screech and Powell’s reply. He turned and shot up the stairs to the main floor.