"The fact that I'm being hamstrung at every turn. Men I assigned to
search out the last android have been taken off the job, transferred
away from me without notice."
"You speak of being _hamstrung_." Porter pronounced the term with an
inflection of disgust, as though it were a vulgarism no gentleman would
use. "You say we do not realize the gravity of the situation. Perhaps we
realize it far more than you do. It may be that your activities have
been indirectly curtailed because you have not recognized the vital need
of harmony in government."
"Are you telling me Crane's ego is still smarting?"
"_Senator_ Crane did, in the spirit of co-operation, mention certain
leaks in your department."
"What in hell are you talking about?"
"I'd watch my tone if I were you, Taber. You aren't talking to one of
your legmen now!"
Taber's teeth came tight together. "I'm sorry. Let me repeat the
question. Exactly what was the nature of the leak to which the Senator
referred?"
"A tape--transcribed at one of your top-secret meetings."
Taber's fist closed and opened. "I guess maybe I have been lax," he said
softly.
Porter, grimly happy to have made his point, went on. "As to policy up
above, I'll be quite frank. We have not necessarily gone along with your
theory that the so-called androids were from outer space."
"Then where do you think they originated?"
"We have put data into the calculators on that point. So far, the
results have been inconclusive."
"That's too bad."
"Your sarcasm is uncalled for. I am quite willing to tell you, however,
that we have been proceeding in the matter. You are aware, no doubt, of
the recent space shot that ended disastrously?"
"Who isn't?"
Still insistent upon treating Taber like a backward child, Porter said,
"The missile was safely launched and made five orbits and then suffered
destruction."
"There was a lot of newspaper copy written on the failure; a lot of
questions asked as to the cause."
"The releases were entirely true," Porter said with prim severity.
"There was malfunction of crucial units under stress. But another phase
was not made public. The astronaut's mission--one of them, at least--was
to hunt outer space for foreign bodies of any description."
"What did he report?"
"Nothing."
"I recall a story printed by some Washington columnist that some of the
code picked up from the missile was not translated for the press. This,
he stated, in view of the Administration's current 'Open End' policy on
such matters, was strange."
"If you're implying that we censored certain information, that's quite
true. In the public interest."
"To keep scientific information out of Russian hands?"
"In this case, no. The astronaut fell victim to a psychological stress
that was unforeseen. What he sent made no sense whatever. We blame the
medical men for not finding the flaw in his psyche."
"And I would be entirely out of line in assuming he did discover hostile
foreign bodies and was destroyed by them?"
"Entirely," Porter snapped.
Brent Taber's eyes were stony. "But I _am_ to assume that you're asking
for my resignation."
Now Porter shrugged. "If that is the way you see it, I can, of course,
only tender my regrets."
"Well, you won't have to. I'm not resigning."
The sharp declaration made Porter blink. "It's rather unusual that a
man, after a vote of no confidence--"
"To hell with that. If a tape got out of my office, it's my fault. I'll
grant that. But there's more to this. I'm willing to bet the man who
told you was the same one who engineered the steal."
"That's ridiculous! Are you accusing Senator Crane of--?"
"I'm accusing an opportunist-demagogue of playing fast and loose with
national safety to further his own ends and salve his ego. I'm accusing
the men above me of being too weak-kneed to back their own against
outside interference."
"I'll stand for no insults from you, Taber!"
"You'll take it and like it," Brent Taber said savagely. "You'll take it
because you can't knock me out of my office overnight. It will take
time. You've got to go up through the command and you'll have to go
pretty high before you'll find anyone who'll do it with the stroke of a
pen. Nobody wants to stick their neck out."
"Of course," Porter replied icily, "if you care to keep functioning as a
discredited person--"
"I can. And I will. I'd be a coward if I didn't."
Porter was obviously disappointed but he shrugged. "That's your
privilege. You, of course, will not be taken off the payroll."
"The payroll be damned. Send my checks to the Red Cross!"
And Brent Taber strode out of Porter's office, a man who stood alone in
the Washington jungle of clashing ambitions, of purposes and
cross-purposes--but a man who had no thought of quitting.
After Brent left, Porter put through a call to Senator Crane's office.
" ... so, while severing Brent Taber from official activity would be
rather difficult, Senator, I have, in the interests of efficiency,
withdrawn most of his facilities."
"A wise move, Porter. A very wise move."
"By the way, Senator, that hydroelectric project on the Panamint River
your Conservation people have in the works. I'm quite interested in it."
"Is that so?" Crane asked guardedly.
"Yes. Perhaps because of my experience along those lines in South
America. I consider it a great opportunity to serve and I understand the
administrator's post is still open."