"Nuts!" Benton growled, shaking his heavy shoulders.
The doctor paused in the sorting of his newspapers, but said nothing. He selected one and spread it open on an easel in front of the screen. After one second Albie turned a page, continuing the operation until half the paper had been exposed. Then he laid it on the floor and selected another.
"Atomic Energy Council," he said. "Nothing there."
He repeated the operation with the second paper, but turned only three pages before laying it down on the first one.
Benton suddenly gave a start. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead reached out and depressed a button. Then he looked at the doctor. For a second he noted nothing unusual and turned back to the meters. He felt a trickle down his side as sweat fairly poured from him; he depressed two more buttons and looked back at the doctor.
Then he saw it. Dr. Albie was performing exactly as before, turning pages at the rate of one a second. But there was only one newspaper on the floor! He had picked up the second and replaced it on the easel!
Stretching himself langorously, Benton stood up. He felt the weight above him even more intensely, but forced himself to be casual. Certainly Urei couldn't see the sweat trickling down his sides. Abruptly he snapped off the switches and growled to himself. Who was he kidding? If Urei was controlling the master physicist, he was certainly capable of reading Benton's mind; he would know about the thought detectors and what they were showing.
Momentarily Benton expected his mind to go blank. Urei certainly wouldn't let them leave the place with this knowledge. And what better way to prevent that than to blank out their memories? Probably Dr. Albie didn't know he was being controlled. Benton took a deep breath, realizing that he had been remiss in that function for a minute or so.
Dr. Albie cleared his throat as he laid the paper down on the first one. "That one was about the Eastern Alliance accusations that we tried to rig the Italian elections and how justice triumphed in spite of our machinations." He chuckled. "Urei doesn't seem to be particularly interested, does he?"