Transcriber's Note:  Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction, January, 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. 

 

 

 

  The highest treason of all is not so easy to define—and be it noted carefully that the true traitor in this case was not singular, but very plural . . .  

 

 THE HIGHEST . . . TREASON 

 

 By 

 RANDALL GARRETT 

 Illustrated by Gardner 

 

 

  The Prisoner  

 HE two rooms were not luxurious, but MacMaine hadn't expected that they would be. The walls were a flat metallic gray, unadorned and windowless. The ceilings and floors were simply continuations of the walls, except for the glow-plates overhead. One room held a small cabinet for his personal possessions, a wide, reasonably soft bed, a small but adequate desk, and, in one corner, a cubicle that contained the necessary sanitary plumbing facilities. 

 The other room held a couch, two big easy-chairs, a low table, some bookshelves, a squat refrigerator containing food and drink for his occasional snacks—his regular meals were brought in hot from the main kitchen—and a closet that contained his clothing—the insignialess uniforms of a Kerothi officer. 

 No, thought Sebastian MacMaine, it was not luxurious, but neither did it look like the prison cell it was. 

 There was comfort here, and even the illusion of privacy, although there were TV pickups in the walls, placed so that no movement in either room would go unnoticed. The switch which cut off 

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