Another silence. At last Groating sighed wearily. He shut the
controller up with a wave of his hand and said: "It seems Mr.
Carmichael does know enough to make things awkward all around."
The controller burst out: "It's no fault of mine. I always insisted on
a thorough guard system. If we had guarded the--"
"Guards," Groating interrupted, "would only have upset existing
Stability. They would have drawn attention and suspicion. We were
forced to take the chance of a slip-up. Now that it's happened we must
make the best of it."
I said: "Excuse me, sir. I wouldn't have come here just to boast. I
could have kept quiet about it. What bothers me is what bothered you?"
Groating stared at me for a moment, then turned away and began to pace
up and down the room. There was no anger in his attitude; if there
had been, I wouldn't have been as scared as I was. It was a big room
and he did a lot of pacing and I could see he was coldly analyzing
the situation and deciding what was to be done with me. That frigid
appraisal had me trembling.
I said: "I'll give you my word not to mention this again--if that'll do
the trick."
He paid no attention--merely paced. My mind raced crazily through all
the nasty things that could happen to me. Like solitary for life. Like
one-way exploration. Like an obliterated memory track which meant I
would have lost my twenty-eight years, not that they were worth much to
anyone but me.
I got panicky and yelled: "You can't do anything to me. Remember
Stability--" I began to quote the Credo as fast as I could remember:
"The _status quo_ must be maintained at all costs. Every member of
society is an integral and essential factor of the _status quo_. A blow
at the Stability of any individual is a blow aimed at the Stability
of society. Stability that is maintained at the cost of so much as a
single individual is tantamount to Chaos--"
"Thank you, Mr. Carmichael," the C-S interrupted. "I have already
learned the Credo."
He went to the controller's desk and punched the teletype keys rapidly.
After a few minutes of horrible waiting the answer came clicking back.
Groating read the message, nodded and beckoned to me. I stepped up to
him and, boys, I don't know how the legs kept from puddling on the
floor.
Groating said: "Mr. Carmichael, it is my pleasure to appoint you
confidential reporter to the Stability Board for the duration of this
crisis."