"Trick?" Walton asked innocently. "What trick? Simple decoration,
that's all--and quite lovely, too. Just like the kaleidowhirls you've
seen on video."
Fred shook his head. "It's not the same thing. How do I know it's not
some sort of hypnoscreen? How do I know what those lights can do?"
Walton realized his brother was unfamiliar with wall kaleidoscopes.
"It's perfectly harmless," he said. "But if you don't want it on, we
can do without it."
"Good. That's the way I like it."
Walton observed that Fred's cool confidence seemed somewhat shaken.
His brother had made a tactical error in insisting on holding their
interview here, where Walton had so much the upper hand.
"May I ask again why you wanted to see me?" Walton said.
"There are those people," Fred said slowly, "who oppose the entire
principle of population equalization."
"I'm aware of that. Some of them are members of this very club."
"Exactly. Some of them are. The ones I mean are the gentry, those still
lucky enough to cling to land and home. The squire with a hundred acres
in the Matto Grosso; the wealthy landowner of Liberia; the gentleman
who controls the rubber output of one of the lesser Indonesian islands.
These people, Roy, are unhappy over equalization. They know that sooner
or later you and your Bureau will find out about them and will equalize
them ... say, by installing a hundred Chinese on a private estate, or
by using a private river for a nuclear turbine. You'll have to admit
that their dislike of equalization is understandable."
"Everyone's dislike of equalization is understandable," Walton said. "I
dislike it myself. You got your evidence of that two days ago. No one
likes to give up special privileges."
"You see my point, then. There are perhaps a hundred of these men in
close contact with each other--"
"_What!_"
"Ah, yes," Fred said. "A league. A conspiracy, it might almost be
called. Very, very shady doings."
"Yes."
"I work for them," Fred said.
Walton let that soak in. "You're an employee of Popeek," he said. "Are
you inferring that you're both an employee of Popeek and an employee
of a group that seeks to undermine Popeek?"
Fred grinned proudly. "That's the position on the nose. It calls for
remarkable compartmentalization of mind. I think I manage nicely."