He frowned, searching for a way to ease the hurt she would feel later,
and finding none. "That depends on the psychiatrist. If he can't help
me, I may fly up to my cabin in the Catskills and wrestle this thing out
for myself."
Kitty moved to go, and then turned back. "I almost forgot. There was a
call for you at noon from a secretary of Victor Jaffers' at Carter
International. She seemed to know you'd be out and said that Mr. Jaffers
would call again at 15:00."
"Victor Jaffers?" Alcorn repeated. The name added a further premonitory
depression. "I think I know what he wants. It's happened before."
When Kitty had gone, Alcorn took a restless turn about the room and was
interrupted at once by the gentle buzzing of the radophone unit on his
desk. He pressed the receiving stud and found himself facing Victor
Jaffers' image.
"Don't bother to record this," Jaffers said without preamble. "Complete
arrangements have already been made to prove that I've never spoken to
you in my life."
* * * * *
Jaffers was a small, still-faced man who might have been mistaken for a
senior accountant's clerk--until the chill force of his eyes made itself
felt. Alcorn had seen the Carter International head before only in
teleprint pictures, had heard and discounted the stories about the man's
studied ruthlessness. But those eyes and the blunt approach made him
wonder.
"I've got a place in the contact branch of my organization for your
particular talent, Alcorn," Jaffers said flatly. "It will pay you five
times what you earn with Consolidated. You understand why I'm taking you
on."
"I know." The arrogance wearied rather than angered Alcorn. "I have a
gift for arranging fair settlements when both principals are present.
Mr. Jaffers, I've never exploited my gift for personal profit. That's a
matter of self-protection as well as ethics--I don't like trouble." He
reached for the canceling stud to end the interview. "Others have made
the same offer before you and there'll be others again. But I won't use
my ability unfairly."
Jaffers smiled, unamused. "You do go straight to the point, which saves
argument. But you'll work for me, Alcorn. Those others made the mistake
of talking to you personally. I know that you can be reached as easily
as any other man if my agents keep more than fifty feet away from you."
His eyes moved past Alcorn to the window. "Look at the window across the
street."
Alcorn, turning, felt his neck prickle. Across the narrow canyon of
street, without pretense at concealing himself, a man in gray clothing
watched him from an open office window.
"I've had you under surveillance for days," Jeffers' voice said behind
him. "I've located two others of your sort since my statisticians
brought their existence to my attention, but somehow they slipped
through my fingers this week. I'm taking no chances on you."