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particular a nightmare, always symbolized something of significance to the
dreamer, and there had been instructions in various self-help methods which
could be used in tracking a disturbing dream down to its source.
It took around an hour to uncover the source which had produced the
dream-symbol of the Psionic Cop.
There was no real question about its nature. She'd been given a set of
suggestions, cunningly interwoven with various aspects of her mental life, and
anchored to emotional disturbance points. When she acted against the
suggestions, the disturbances were aroused. The result had been a menacing
dream.
She dug at the planted thoughts for a while, then decided to leave them alone.
If the Psych texts were right, nothing in her mind that she had taken a really
thorough look at was going to bother her too much again.
The question was who had been interested in giving her such instructions. Who
didn't want her to experiment with psionics on her own or get too curious
about it?
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From there on, the details began to fall into place &
The odd burst of psionic noise as she came through the Customs hall at the
space terminal in Orado City Telzey considered it with a sense of apprehensive
discovery.
The Customs machine certainly wasn't supposed to be able to affect human
minds. But it belonged to the same family as the psionic devices of the
rehabilitation centers and mental therapy institutions, which did read,
manipulate, and reshape human minds. The difference, supposedly, was simply
that the Customs machine was designed to do other kinds of work.
But the authority which designed, constructed and maintained all psionic
machines, the Federation's Psychology Service, was at present keeping the
details of design and construction a carefully guarded secret. The reason
given for this was that experimentation with the machines must be carried
further before such details could be offered safely to the public. Which meant
that whatever the Psychology Service happened to want built into any of its
machines could be built into it. And that might include something which
transmitted to the mind of psis an order to either enter the Psychology
Service or stop putting their special abilities to use.
That was roughly what the suggestions they'd put into her mind amounted to.
But what was the purpose?
She couldn't know immediately and, probably, she was not supposed to be
wondering. The dream had led her to discover their trick, and that had brought
her to the edge of something they wouldn't want known.
It wasn't a confortable reflection. Telzey had listened to enough political
shop talk among her mother's colleagues to know that the Federation could act
in very decisive, ruthless ways in a matter of sufficient importance. And here
was something, some plan or policy in connection with psis and psionics,
apparently important enough to remain unknown even to junior members of the
Federation's Grand Council! Jessamine would have expressed a very different
kind of concern if she'd had any inkling that a branch of Federation
government was interested in her daughter's experience with xenotelepathy.
Telzey rubbed her neck pensively. She could keep such thoughts to herself, but
she couldn't very well help having them. And if the Psychology Service looked
into her mind again, they might not like at all what she'd been thinking.
So what should she do?
The whole thing was connected, of course, with their top-secret psionic
machines. There was one of those a supposedly very advanced type of
mind-reader, as a matter of fact about which she could get detailed first-hand
information without going farther than the Bank of Rienne. And she might learn
something from that which would fill in the picture for her.
The machine was used by Transcluster Finance, the giant central bank which
regulated the activities of major financial houses on more than half the
Federation's worlds, and wielded more actual power than any dozen planetary
governments. In the field of financial ethics, Transcluster made and enforced
its own laws. Huge sums of money were frequently at stake in disputes among
its associates, and machines of presumably more than human incorruptibility
and accuracy were therefore employed to help settle conflicting charges and
claims.
Two members of the Bank of Rienne's legal staff who specialized in ethics
hearings were pleased to learn of Telzey's scholarly interest in their
subject. They explained the proceedings in which the psionic Verifier was
involved at considerable length. In operation, the giant telepath could draw
any information pertinent to a hearing from a human mind within minutes. A
participant who wished to submit his statements to verification was left alone
in a heavily shielded chamber. He sensed nothing, but his mind became for a
time a part of the machine's circuits. He was then released from the chamber,
and the Verifier reported what it had found to the adjudicators of the
hearing. The report was accepted as absolute evidence; it could not be
questioned.
Rienne's attorneys felt that the introduction of psionic verification had in
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fact brought about a noticeable improvement in ethical standards throughout
Transcluster's vast finance web. Of course it was possible to circumvent the
machines. No one was obliged to make use of them; and in most cases, they were
instructed to investigate only specific details of thought and memory
indicated to them to confirm a particular claim. This sometimes resulted in a
hearing decision going to the side which most skillfully presented the
evidence in its favor for verification, rather than to the one which happened
to be in the right. A Verifier was, after all, a machine and ignored whatever
was not covered by its instructions, even when the mind it was scanning
contained additional information with a direct and obvious bearing on the
case. This had been so invariably demonstrated in practice that no reasonable
person could retain the slightest qualms on the point. To further reassure [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]