"Miss Florence Horniman," Kroll said. "Accused of treason against the State. Denies charge."
"How do you plead?" the machine asked coldly.
"Not guilty," stammered the girl.
Two huge metal arms extended from the Inquisitor's sides and folded around her. They drew her across the room to the bosom of the robot. "Feed in the data, Kroll."
At the signal, Kroll slipped in the tape on the girl. A moment passed while the Inquisitor digested the data, and then: "The plea of not guilty is rejected as invalid."
"You can't just do that!" the girl said. "That's my plea!"
"Not valid in view of the evidence," said the Inquisitor. Kroll smiled distantly. He had seen this scene repeated, over and over, almost every day for the ten years he had held the post. He wrapped his blue-and-gold Interrogator's cloak around himself impressively and stepped forward.