way down the corridor, past doors to a half-dozen cramped bunks, and through a telescopic conduit and hatch into the vehicle's forward trailer section. Then at last they were there: in the ops room itself, the mobile nerve-centre ...lan Goodly was in the hollow oval that formed the central desk. He swung round the oval on a tracked chair, studying the various illuminated wall-charts and monitor screens. The place was hi-tec heaven, well in advance even of anything else that AD 2011 had to offer. In complete contrast to the articulated shell of truck and trailers - indeed, utterly contradicting that outer facade, with its mundane and easily identifiable 'Castlemaine' and 'XXXX' legends - this interior was something out of speculative fiction. And never a can of beer in sight.Goodly was wearing what looked like a virtual reality headset that was constantly tuning itself to whatever event or location he was observing. But as he swung into a new position and Trask and company came between the precog and the ever-changing screens, so Goodly brought his chair to a halt and took off the headset.The Old Lidesci shook his grizzled head in astonishment and grunted, 'After two years of working with you people, I'm still not used to it.' Not used to ... to this.'Trask nodded his understanding. 7 know what you mean/ he said, 'but you won't get too much sympathy from me. Hell, it's been more than thirty years for me - and I still feel the same about it/ What was it Alec Kyle used to say? How did he put it? Or was it Darcy Clarke?' He shrugged. 'But what difference does it make, eh? It could have been any one of us. "Robots and romantics. Super-science and the supernatural. Telemetry and telepathy. Computerized probability patterns and precognition. Huh! Gadgets and ghosts.'" Well, that's it. That's E-Branch/But Jake wanted to know: 'Just what is E-Branch? What's it all about? Don't you think it's time we saw the whole picture?' He glanced at Liz. 'Well, me at least... especially after what you threw me into tonight?''Threw us into,' said Liz. 'I'm not as much in the dark as you, Jake, but it's still pretty murky around here.' She looked at Trask, perhaps accusingly. 'And after all, while tonight was one of the first things we've done, it might also have been the last.'But lan Goodly shook his head. 'No/ he said. 'You have a way to go yet, you two/'Precog/ Jake said, sourly. 'That's how I've heard people refer to you. But how can you possibly know for sure?'And Trask said, 'Because he hasn't let us down yet/'And what if tonight had been the first time?' Jake wasn't convinced.
But Trask only raised a white eyebrow. 'So what's your big problem, Jake? Are you trying to kid us you haven't been doing your best to get yourself killed these last three years?'
'Maybe,' Jake snapped. 'But on my terms!'
'Well now it's on my terms/ Trask growled. 'Or E-Branch's terms/ Then he relaxed a little, looked less severe, and said, 'Okay, I'll tell you. It was a test. Oh, it served its purpose, too, but it was nevertheless a test. And you both passed it. We saw enough tonight - enough happened - to convince us we were right/
'About me?' Jake said.'About both of you/ Trask replied. 'Liz did her thing, and we all saw Trennier's reply. She sent and he received - and he reacted!''Did he ever!' said Liz with a shudder. 'But you're the one who told me to taunt him/
Trask nodded and said, 'And you made a damn good job of it, too, and satisfied our best expectations. So, if you still want in, welcome to the club. You're one of us. And having seen what you've seen - even with what little we've allowed you to learn - we've no doubt but that you'll join us. So that's that. And in any case you have time to think about it/
'And do I have time to think about it, too?' Jake said testily. 'If so you can have my answer right now. It's no, I'm out/
Trask frowned, narrowed his eyes, and said, 'Well, that's a damn shame because you don't have a choice. And that's because you, too, did your thing tonight. Something I haven't seen the likes of in, oh, five years. And when I did last see it ...