And the bonds closed down upon him again.
The First Speaker frowned: “I see. What is it you are planning to do?”
“Do you really wonder? Do you really find it difficult to penetrate the obvious? All this time that you have preached to me of the nature of emotional contact – all this time that you have been throwing words such as megalomania and paranoia at me, I have been working. I have been in contact with my Fleet and it has its orders. In six hours, unless I should for some reason counteract my orders, they are to bombard all of Rossem except this lone village and an area of a hundred square miles about it. They are to do a thorough job and are then to land here.
“You have six hours, and in six hours, you cannot beat down my mind, nor can you save the rest of Rossem.”
The Mule spread his hands and laughed again while the First Speaker seemed to find difficulty in absorbing this new state of affairs.
He said: “The alternative?”
“Why should there even be an alternative? I can stand to gain no more by any alternative. Is it the lives of those on Rossem I’m to be chary of? Perhaps if you allow my ships to land and submit, all of you – all the men on the Second Foundation – to mental control sufficient to suit myself, I may countermand the bombardment orders. It may be worthwhile to put so many men of high intelligence under my control. But then again it would be a considerable effort and perhaps not worth it after all, so I’m not particularly eager to have you agree to it. What do you say, Second Foundationer? What weapon have you against my mind which is as strong as yours at least and against my ships which are stronger than anything you have ever dreamed of possessing?”
“What have I?” repeated the First Speaker, slowly: “Why nothing – except a little grain – such a little grain of knowledge that even yet you do not possess.”
“Speak quickly,” laughed the Mule, “speak inventively. For squirm as you might, you won’t squirm out of this.”
“Poor mutant,” said the First Speaker, “I have nothing to squirm out of. Ask yourself – why was Bail Channis sent to Kalgan as a decoy – Bail Channis, who though young and brave is almost as much your mental inferior as is this sleeping officer of yours, this Han Pritcher. Why did not I go, or another of our leaders, who would be more your match?”
“Perhaps,” came the supremely confident reply, “you were not sufficiently foolish, since perhaps none of you are my match.”
“The true reason is more logical. You knew Channis to be a Second Foundationer. He lacked the capacity to hide that from you. And you knew, too, that you were his superior, so you were not afraid to play his game and follow him as he wished you to in order to outwit him later. Had I gone to Kalgan, you would have killed me for I would have been a real danger, or had I avoided death by concealing my identity, I would yet have failed in persuading you to follow me into space. It was only known inferiority that lured you on. And had you remained on Kalgan, not all the force of the Second Foundation could have harmed you, surrounded as you were by your men, your machines, and your mental power.”
“My mental power is yet with me, squirmer,” said the Mule, “and my men and machines are not far off.”
“Truly so, but you are not on Kalgan. You are here in the Kingdom of Tazenda, logically presented to you as the Second Foundation – very logically presented. It had to be so presented, for you are a wise man, First Citizen, and would follow only logic.”
“Correct, and it was a momentary victory for your side, but there was still time for me to worm the truth from your man, Channis, and still wisdom in me to realize that such a truth might exist.”
“And on our side, oh, not-quite-sufficiently-subtle one, was the realization that you might go that one step further and so Bail Channis was prepared for you.”