"Winnie, do you by any chance know," Opperly said, "whether an odd animal of some sort appeared at the Foundation early this morning?"
Phil felt Sacheverell's hand tighten on his biceps.
Dr. Garnett looked around puzzledly. Then his eyebrows shot up. "Yes," he said, "Ginny Ames found a green cat, a fashion mutant, I suppose, wailing at the door early this morning. We don't have much food here, but she tried it on some elderberry preserves and apparently it liked it. I believe the creature's still around."
"Winnie, don't you get any bulletins from Security?" Opperly asked incredulously. "Or from the FBL?"
Garnett shook his big head. "Not for the past ten years. Esp's so unpopular that even the government's forgot us."
"I see," Opperly said, his eyes glittering with interest. "In that case you haven't read anything about a mutant creature described as a green cat, that's believed to have super-human parapsychological powers and to have caused officials to go over to Russia and do all sorts of other things described as crazy? The public hasn't been told, but all the higher echelons—scientists, doctors, psychiatrists—have been getting bulletins on the subject, demanding that they report anything they know or have heard about a green cat. Even I've been told a little."
"Can you beat it," Garnett said disgustedly, "something involving esp and they consult everyone but us." Then he turned to Opperly like a man waking up. "Do you mean to suggest that this creature is responsible for the esp results we've been getting?"
Opperly nodded. "I do."
"But how, why?"
Opperly shrugged happily. "I don't know. I've merely been making some of those far-fetched guesses I've warned my young journalist friends about." And he smiled at Phil and da Silva.