"You may not. I will do the asking. What did you do to Nocher?"
"Nothing," Holder promptly answered.
"I saw you do it." The commandant pointed to the television screen on his desk.
"You saw me do what?" Holder said. Anger was rising in him. Again he had the impression that the inside of his head was filling with light.
"I saw you destroy him, with the new discovery you have made!" A wolfish grin appeared on the Commandant's face and he looked like a Red who has just found a way to achieve his heart's desire of swallowing the world.
Holder saw what was happening. The commandant harbored a secret desire to be a ruler. Another Mussolini, another Stalin! If the commandant could win possession of the discovery he thought Holder had made, he might become another Genghis Khan, to scourge the world with flame and death.
"You're utterly crazy!" Holder shouted.
"You have discovered a disintegrating ray and I want it." The commandant continued as if he had not heard a word the scientist had said. "I'm also going to get it." He flicked a button and motioned Holder to look at the TV screen. Revealed there were Marie and Johnny and Teresa. The kids were playing their eternal game of hide and seek and were waiting for him to return home to play it with them. At the sight, Holder felt his heart turn over inside him.
"You wouldn't harm them," he whispered. "You wouldn't dare."