slowness to me. "Is that all, Mr. Tinker?" she asked.
Fred answered. "Swell, Freeda. That's all."
Freeda wandered out.
Fred said: "O.K., Gyp. What'll I do with her?"
"Sit down, Mrs. ... it is Mrs., isn't it? ... Mrs. Tinker, won't youplease?" I said in answer to his question. She took the chair Anita hadbeen using when Tony was pretending to be me, and I sat down in myswivel across the desk from her.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Tinker," I said. "It's bad enough that you havedeliberately stayed in the District after all telepaths were moststringently warned to register with us so that we could move them toless sensitive areas. But I take it quite hard that you have tried toembarrass me."
"That would take a little doing," she said. "You've got a heart like apiece of flint. Let me see your palm!" she demanded, reachingimperatively across my desk. Fred started to protest, but I passed myhand across to her, leaning forward so that she could reach it.
Maude Tinker smoothed out my palm, rubbing her thumb over it as if toclear away a veil of mystery, and bent close over it, her dark faceintense. She traced a line or two with her fingernail, and dropped myhand to the walnut. "You have no mercy," she said. "You will use theexcuse that I tried to hinder the work of your department as a reason topunish me severely--and your real reason is that you feel I might havedamaged you personally."
Fred was moving around the desk. He spoke softly in my ear while I keptmy eye on the gypsy. That was silly. He can't close his mind the way Ican. She could read his thoughts just as well as if he were screamingthem out loud.
"That's a charge she may repeat, Gyp," he said. "Nobody could blame you,if you disqualified yourself from this decision. I think we could getthe newscasts to see it as impeccable public behavior. We'll paint youas the administrator so devoted to pure justice that even potentialresentment will be a barrier to your personal decision. How's that soundto you, Gyp?"
"The day you have to start painting a picture for them, I've had it,Fred," I said. I felt sure Anita had overheard his soft words in my ear,but to be sure, I added, "I think it would be suicide to disqualifymyself from this case. That's just the first step to disqualifyingmyself from the job. If there's any hint of telepathic heredity in mycase, ducking this decision would be a public admission that I'msensitive in that area. No. I'll handle it."
Anita nodded slowly to me. Well, she had called it. Maybe she _was_right about Fred. "Tell you what," I said. "Several things about thiscase interest me. If we are to believe her, this woman has hadabsolutely no contact with any other telepath in Washington--she thoughtshe was the only one who had escaped our dragnet. Why don't all of youshoo--I want to do a little survey in depth here--a little motivationalwork. I think I can get more frankness out of her if there are nowitnesses. Beat it, kids."
Anita left with Fred. Maude Tinker and I were alone in my office. Ilooked at her with a smile.
* * * * *
"Hello, Joe," she said.
"Hello, Mother," I said. "You look just wonderful."
Mother smiled at me and reached across the desk again to take both myhands. "_Yosip_," she said in Romany. "What a wonderful long way youhave come since you ran away. A lawyer, and now a big man, a _very_ bigman, in Washington. I am a very proud gypsy."
What I might have said to her was interrupted by a racket outside myoffice. Voices were raised. I thought I heard what could only be Anitayelling. That's another thing that had never happened before.
Fred burst back into the office, with Anita right on his heels. His facewas livid. Mother turned in her chair and looked coldly at him. A gypsywoman can give you the snootiest look in the world, right down heraquiline nose, when she feels like it. It stopped Fred Plaice in histracks.
"Yes, Fred?" I said quietly.
"If you don't mind, Tinker," he said brusquely. "I'd like to be presentfor this interview."
"Tinker?"
"I'm sorry, Gyp," he said. "I'm ... I'm upset."
"I'll bet you are, you sneak," Anita said. "Chief," she told me. "He wasfit to be tied when you chased us out. The first thing he wanted to knowwas whatever had made you decide to get Tony Carlucci in here to trickhis gypsy snake. I was so mad that I flipped and told him it was _my_idea."
"Is that why you're back?" I asked him.
"Get this calf-eyed girl Friday of yours off my back," he said stonily."Our security certainly doesn't permit your confidential assistant to bein love with you. We're supposed to be checking each other constantly."
I hardly knew which of his two ideas to blast the hardest. I looked atAnita first. She simply raised her head and looked me straight in theeye. It could mean almost anything.
I tried Fred: "And you consider it's your job to check on me?"
"Of course. Goes without saying," he said. I shrugged. "At any rate," headded, calming down. "I'm staying. Nothing outside of a direct order,which I will protest to George Kelly, will get me to leave." The lastthing I wanted was trouble with the Director.
"Stay, Fred," I said. "But we'll have some things to settle afterwards."
"Maybe," he smiled. "It will depend. Right now I'd like to get a load ofthis motivational research you've got cooked up."
"Don't bother," Mother said. "I've got more sense than to tie the ropearound my own neck. I'm not saying a word." She crossed her arms and satback in her chair with a granitic finality.
"So much the quicker," Fred said. "You can sentence her right now, Gyp!"
"Sure," I said. "Sure I can." I wish I could say that my mind raced to aquick decision. No--I _couldn't_ think. Or almost couldn't. One ideapercolated through. Mother had made no "mistake" in calling Tony by myname. She had read Fred's mind in the 'copter on the way from the jail,and Anita's as she was ushered in. Her "mistake" could only mean onething--_Fred Plaice was not sure she was my mother_.
This much thought took time. Fred knew I was stalling. "Come on," hesnapped in a tone he had never dared to use to me before. "Let's havethe sentence!"
He was right in one thing. He had me over a barrel. I squeezed myeyelids shut and did something I hadn't done since that day twenty yearsbefore when I had run away from home. I opened my mind to my mother.
* * * * *
Unless you have had the experience, you can't imagine what it is like tolive with a telepath. It is disquieting in the extreme. One of theconcomitants of consciousness is that it is _private_ consciousness. Andwhen this isn't true, when someone, even a loved one, can creep intoyour mind and know what you think, your insides writhe. Caterpillarscourse around under your skin. And you resent. Sooner or later you willhate. I ran away from home because I couldn't stand Mother in my mind,and couldn't bear the thought of hating her.
But now I _had_ to know what I should do to her. I let her into mythoughts. _Give me some sign_, I thought, as I waved a hand at Fred forquiet. _Mother, tell me what to do!_
_Poor Joe_, she thought. _He loves me in spite of it all. He can't bearto do what he has to do. Joe!_ her mind shrieked at me. _You read mymind!_
I snapped upright in my chair and grabbed its arms until I could hear myknuckles crack. My mind snapped shut with an almost audible crack. _Iwas a damned snake!_
I could dimly hear Fred yammering at me. With a sick fear I slowlyopened my mind again. His thoughts surged into it. Well, Anita had beenright. And Anita!
_Yes_, Mother thought. _She does love you, Joe. A lovely girl. You luckyman._
Fred had me by the shoulder, yelling at me, shaking me, trying to get meto speak. He was almost slavering in his greed. I paid him no heed._All right_, I thought. _What's to be done, Mother?_
_Throw the book at me_, Mother thought.
"Shut up, Fred. And sit down." He kept his tight grip on my shoulder."Sit down!" I yelled at him. "Three strikes and out, Fred. This is thethird order you've resisted today!"
"Now hear this," I said. "Under the powers vested in me ..." I sentencedMother to indefinite detention in Oklahoma.
I threatened her withworse--face it, the only worse thing was death--if she were found in arestricted area again.
"Take her out, Fred," I said. He hadn't counted on my being able to doit, and it left him without a plan. "Four times?" I asked him.
"No. No, Gyp. On my way," he said, taking Mother by the arm.
Anita started to follow him. I stopped her and waited until the door