"Iron, I suppose—they did when I went to school last."
"The answer, then, is to build me a speedster that is inherently indetectable—absolutely non-ferrous. Berylumin and other alloys for all the structural parts—"
"But you've got to have silicon-steel cores for your electrical equipment!"
"I was coming to that. Have you? I was reading in the 'Transactions' the other day that force fields had been used in big units, and were more efficient. Some of the smaller units, instruments and so on, might have to have some iron, but wouldn't it be possible to so saturate those small pieces with a dense field of detector frequencies that they wouldn't react?"
"I don't know. Never thought of it. Would it?"
"I don't know, either—I'm not telling you, I'm just making suggestions. I do know one thing, however. We've got to keep ahead of them—think of things first and oftenest, and be ready to abandon them for something else as soon as we have used them once."
"Except for those primary projectors." Haynes grinned wryly. "They can't be abandoned—even with Medonian power we haven't been able to develop a screen that will stop them cold. We've got to keep them secret from Boskone—and in that connection I want to compliment you on the suggestion of having Velantian Lensmen as mind readers wherever those projectors are even being thought of."
"You caught spies, then? How many?"
"Not many—three or four in each Base—but enough to have done the damage. Now, I believe, for the first time in history, we can be sure of our entire personnel."
"I think so. The Arisian said that the Lens was enough, if we used it properly. That's up to us."