delivering the children, Harry has no more involvement with the project. About eighteen years later, a White House operative, Eggerton, summons Harry and inquires him on his knowledge of the work in the compound. He truthfully tells them that he has no inside knowledge of the project, save what his sister told him in the project's beginnings, which he hadn't disclosed to anyone due to its secrecy. Harry is told that the compound was about to be visited for the first time since its beginning and, as they were about to enter, promptly vanished. It was replaced by a great, gray impenetrable barrier. In hearing this, Harry produces a letter he had received almost a year earlier from his sister. In it, they find an informal report on their progress in the experiment. Jean and Mark had recruited a group of educators, married couples only, to live and teach at the compound. All the educators, Jean and Mark included, acted as teacher/parents to all the children: no one child had one parent, no one teacher had one child. They then immersed the children in a knowledge-rich atmosphere. Since they were predetermined to be mentally gifted, they all progressed rapidly in knowledge and abilities. By the time they were five, the children were discovering their telepathic abilities. Jean relates that the children usually walk about nude, openly make love with one another, and possess unmatched knowledge in all academic and physical areas. They also share one mindset. With their advanced telepathic abilities, they constantly think as one, no verbal communication is necessary between them. When meeting with the researchers, who they love, but pity (due to their inferior intelligence and lack of telepathic abilities), only one child is necessary since all can hear and speak through the single representative's mind. Several children are born to the researchers while living at the facility. While these children are of normal intelligence, they flourish under the tutelage of the older children and become almost as gifted as them. Near the end of the fifteenth year, realizing that their experiment is about to be investigated, Jean worries what may happen to the children, now young adults, when the government discovers them. The experiment was a success—too much of a success. Not only have they raised mentally gifted people, they have given rise to a new race of super-intelligent demigods. Jean fears—correctly—that the government will react