then, quite casually, lessing lifted off his monitor. the children continued staring at the tower as the screen gave three or four violent bursts of green fire and went dark.
the block tower fell with a crash.
moments later lessing was back in the observation room, leaving the children busily putting the tower back together. there was a little smile on his lips as he saw melrose's face. "perhaps you're beginning to see what i'm driving at," he said slowly.
"yes," said melrose. "i think i'm beginning to see." he scratched his jaw. "you think that it's adult psi-contact that drives the child's potential underground—that somehow adult contact acts like a damper, a sort of colossal candle-snuffer."
"that's what i think," said lessing.
"how do you know those children didn't make you take off your monitor?"
lessing blinked. "why should they?"
"maybe they enjoy the crash when the blocks fall down."
"but that wouldn't make any difference, would it? the blocks still fall down."
melrose paced down the narrow room. "this is very good," he said suddenly, his voice earnest. "you have fine facilities here, good workers. and in spite of my flippancy, dr. lessing, i have never imagined for a moment that you were not an acute observer and a careful, highly imaginative worker. but suppose i told you, in perfect faith, that we have data that flatly contradicts everything you've told me today. reproducible data, utterly incompatable with yours. what would you say to that?"
"i'd say you were wrong," said lessing. "you couldn't have such data. according to the things i am certain are true, what you're saying is sheer nonsense."
"and you'd express that opinion in a professional meeting?"
"i would."
"and as an authority on psionic behavior patterns," said melrose slowly, "you would kill us then and there. you would strangle us professionally, discredit anything we did, cut us off cold." the tall man turned on him fiercely. "are you blind, man? can't you see what danger you're in? if you publish your book now, you will become an authority in a field where the most devastating thing that could possibly happen would be—the appearance of an authority."
