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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.
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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 Constitution 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 identity,' Bolin said. 'Ah, well.'
'If you're through with your little chat,' Dooley said, 'would you care to answer my question, Ser Bolin?
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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 analogy 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 Constitutional functions must be obeyed by
all agents.'
McKie nodded, seeing in the glitter of Bolin's eyes, a vista of peeping Tom assignments 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?
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