"No, I think not," Beardsley replied carefully.
Arnold hesitated, eyeing the briefcase in Beardsley's clutch. "It's been
rough on you, too, I imagine. Hope there aren't more than thirty
variants! We're set up for more, of course, but it'll necessitate--"
"Twenty-two," Beardsley assured him. Carefully, he spread the coded and
sealed _persona-tapes_ across the desk. "Fresh from Citizen-File
Augment, everything annotated and cross-checked. Blood-count, emotional
stasis, plethora, psycho-geneological index, neuro-thalamic
imbalance--every type factor is here. We really went to the Files on
this case."
"Looks as if you did! How does it narrow down?"
"Fifteen possibles, four Logicals and three Primes--" Beardsley stopped
abruptly. (That news-caster: how had he known there were three Primes?
This stuff was not supposed to leak!) "Twenty-two who _knew_ Carmack,"
he went on. "That includes associational as well as motive-opportunity
factors, with a probability sphere of .004...."
Arnold nodded thoughtfully; his fingers moved unconscious and caressing
across the edge of the desk. "Yes, I see. That's close! Good job," he
said uncertainly.
"Should be! Seven weeks for annotation and code." Beardsley was watching
Arnold's fingers; there was something aimless and fretful as they pushed
among the code-sealed tapes. Beardsley made his voice casual. "If it
interests you," he said, "yes--you are there."
* * * * *
He wanted a reaction and he got it.
"Me!" Arnold stiffened, pulled his fingers away hastily.
"That surprises you? Don't worry, you're not one of the Primes; probably
be rejected on the first run. It's just that you once knew Carmack
rather well. Cal Tech, wasn't it, when Carmack was doing his special
work on magnetronics? Naturally you've had contact since, due to the
nature of your job."
Arnold nodded, frowning. "That's right. It just hadn't occurred to me
that--"
Beardsley realized that he wasn't lying. _It was not the thought of his
own tape that bothered Arnold._
"Oh, we're thorough over at 'Cooerdinates Division!'" Beardsley laughed,
making a minor joke of it. "Now here," he touched a spool labelled in
red, "is your Basic Invariant. Carmack--Amos T. Murdered man. Found
bludgeoned in library of his home, night of April 4. Age 56, held all
outstanding patents on ECAIAC, worth millions, and"--he looked up,
beaming--"leaves beautiful wife."
He paused for the merest moment. Save for a soft drumming of fingers on
the desk, Arnold was silent.
"And here's a sub-Basic: Mrs. Carmack will be a rich woman now. She was
considerably younger than Carmack--and she's been having an affair with
another man." Beardsley smiled at Jeff Arnold. "That's a sociological
note beyond our sphere, but we managed to get the data. I'll bet the
department was appalled that such a gorgeous woman could be resolved
into neo-Euclidian equations!"
"Why?" Arnold was suddenly irritable. "It's been done a thousand times
before!"
"Of course," shrugged Beardsley. "And it's really up to ECAIAC, isn't
it? A Prime can be negated, while on the other hand a variant can shift
from possible to Logical to Prime. Or am I wrong? I've never been up on
the mechanics."
Arnold grunted. "There's bound to be some correlatory shift! The
Primes--how many did you say?"
"Three as of now."
Arnold rose abruptly, then strode to the alco-mech and dialled himself
another drink. He took an uncommonly long time about it. "Look," he
said, "we both know about these things! In a case like this there are
bound to be political repercussions--" He hit Beardsley with a gauging
glance. "Well," he blurted, "I have to admit I'm damn curious! Mind
telling me who are the three Primes? Ah--strictly off the record, you
understand."
Beardsley had expected something like this, and he was quite ready to
answer; but he carefully removed his glasses, massaged the bridge of his
nose and frowned. "Well, now...."
"Come on, give! I know it's against protocol and all that ... but hell!
We'll have the answer anyway in a matter of hours."
Beardsley nodded with a show of thoughtfulness. "Yes, that's true, isn't
it? Very well. But strictly off the record! I warn you--not only will
the first Prime startle you, but the information could be dangerous!"