"Tell 'em that."
"Just how do they think they can create a better outfit?"
"By removing the Guardians from governmental control and making of them
a private organization, a subsidiary of Interstellar."
"I don't see--"
"There's a lot of truth on both sides," said Edwards, "but that is not
for us to settle. All we can do is to stand up for our own ideals.
Just tell 'em what you saw, and what you did; and if you don't let a
few facts interfere with a good story, remember that they're ready to
discount half of what you say anyway. So--here's the inevitable."
3
Hagen entered the office quietly, nodded at Commissioner Morehouse,
smiled at Lois, and eyed Howard Forrest with mild hostility. Forrest,
the representative of Interstellar, returned his hostility with a
stony-cold glance.
It had been years since Forrest and Hagen had met. The last time
had been a hard scene; Forrest had come to Hagen to ascertain the
depth of Steve's feelings regarding the renunciation of his name and
heir-apparent-ship to the commercial empire of William Wrightwood.
Forrest, a clever man with words, had done some of the finest orating
of his life at that time, weaving a verbal web glowing with the glories
of running the whole show. He had given Steve a very rough time.
Steve had yet to learn the first principle of politics, which is never
to admit for one moment that your opponent could possibly be right, or
have an idea that keyed with your own. Steve had attempted to answer
Forrest, and all he got in reply was hard-shelled argument.
The slightest hint of Steve's that Government had any rights at all
was greeted with fine rhetoric and impeccably presented logic to the
effect that Hagen's viewpoint was none other than a leaning towards
Statism, Socialism, and ultimately Communism. Steve resented this.
Yet his lack of preparation for rebuttal left him unable to reply
with good soundness. Hagen had no intention of supporting any form of
governmental control of everything. He believed in the desirability
of self-sufficiency and free enterprise, but he also felt that his
stepfather had taken this freedom as far in one direction as downright
dictatorship would lead it in the other direction.
Forrest had waved away the latter and had fastened upon Steve's
support of free enterprise, pointing out that a group of trained
vortex-fighters with a personal interest in their job would be more
inclined to do the job more thoroughly.
Forrest had finally reduced everything to a matter of dollars and cents
and initiative, leaving Steve only with the weak defense of retreating
inside of a verbal shell and replying that he wasn't going to return
because he did not want to return and that was that. Howard Forrest had
left still making predictions about the future. Now, Forrest looked
at Hagen with eyes that saw him not as a former heir to the throne of
Interstellar, but as a complete stranger.
This was as Hagen wanted it.
He was Steve Hagen; not William Wrightwood Junior, and he did not want
to own up to any relationship with either his stepfather or Forrest.
Steve decided to be curt, cold, concise, and distant.
He had little chance to be any of these. He was asked to deliver his
opinion of the recent eruption, and he did so, addressing alternately
his superiors, Forrest, and three stony-faced gentlemen who had been
introduced as members of a fact-finding board to whom Interstellar had
complained.
Then Hagen expected some form of cross-questioning.
He got none. When he finished, Commissioner Morehouse explained that
this was the opinion of a new man unbiased by experience, and drew the
teeth of any argument by admitting calmly that any Guardian had every
right to talk completely in favor of his chosen service.
Hagen was then excused; he left after tossing a sly smile at Lois.
But once outside, Steve paused. It was not like Forrest to use him so
calmly; this would have been a fine chance to blow an argument full of
holes.