Part 3 (1/2)

And this new group would arrive so late. Couldn't even begin processing them. Or could they?

Might have to.

Let's look at the details.

Connecticut: Musto, John, and his brothers, Ralph and Pietro. Murders.

Following those names, five others of the gang that had terrorized the banks in that area for two years. Capturing all of them at once by putting a sleep-gas bomb in a basket of groceries delivered to their hideout, that had been a neat bit of police work. But till those boys were conditioned or drugged, they would need special guards.

Delaware: Clarens, Walter. Murders. The name was familiar--Oh yes, three killings, one of them a little girl with whose blood Clarens had written at the scene. ”For G.o.d's sake, catch me before I kill again.”

Well, Thornberry would be happy.

Maryland: Major crimes, but no killers.

New Jersey: The usual list from the waterfronts and the usual wide variety of manslaughter and homicide.

New York: Dalton, Harry. Let's see, haven't I ... yes. ”The Man No Jail Can Hold.” Another special guard.

Pennsylvania:...

The name jumped out. _Rooney, Michael_.

The intercom on his desk buzzed and he flipped the switch. ”Go ahead, Bennington here,” he said, and realized only after he had spoken how the thought of Rooney had made his voice a growl.

”Dr. Thornberry, sir. May I see you?”

”By all means,” Bennington said. ”The sooner, the better.”

Thornberry started talking as soon as he opened the door between the two offices.

”General, did you see the list of new arrivals? Of all people, Dalton!

And arriving too late to be conditioned!”

Bennington said nothing until the psychologist had seated himself. He simply watched his chief a.s.sistant and tried to find some reason to like the man.

”What do you mean,” he finally said, ”too late to be conditioned?”

Having just considered this problem, Bennington's question was a testing of Thornberry, not a request for information.

Thornberry was looking aggrieved, as if the fact was so obvious even the general could understand it. ”Processing takes all day, sir, and this group does not arrive until late afternoon.”

”Does the processing have to be continuous?” Bennington hoped his chief a.s.sistant would show a little flexibility.

But the question threw the bureaucratic psychologist into mental dishevelment. ”I beg your pardon?”

”All we have to worry about is keeping them quiet tonight, then you can slip them back to normal in the morning and run them through as if they had arrived tomorrow.”

Thornberry pursed his lips. ”But that would mean--”