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image of a white hard-boned creature of ungainly angles and unexpected hair, lying on an operating table. She could-not pinpoint the image, for it was too nebulous to stimulate a definite memory train, and she attributed it to the unsettling effect of Aquilegia's discourse.

"I think," Aquilegia finally said, slowly, "that I've said enough for the present. Quilly tried to break you in, once upon a time. But since then they've been at work on your mind and there's a limit to what you can absorb."

Aubretia leaned forward earnestly. "Please tell me," she said urgently, "about the government."

Aquilegia shook her head slowly. "Enough is enough. Let me stay here tonight and perhaps tomorrow I'll tell you some more."

"You can stay provided you tell me now."

"Well, just a brief clue, perhaps. Why do you suppose society is organized on an inhuman statistical basis, on a basis of applied mathematics? What type of government would regard human beings as integers in a vast complex equation? What kind of governing authority would regard individuals as units of productivity and scale their life according to their productive capacity?"

Aubretia shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

"I'll tell you," Aquilegia murmured quietly. "We are governed by a machine—an electronic brain, a computor containing more than ten billion digital counting units, with memory banks and integrating networks. In every way it is more efficient than the human brain. It can solve long-term problems of social organization and stability, but it has no soul."

"Where is this . . . this brain? "Aubretia asked.

"Everywhere. It has cellular units in every country of the world, and all the cells are linked together into a vast world brain. The brain is guarded by a small force of trained technicians who feed it with statistical information concerning every conceivable aspect of human existence. And with that