"Tell me something." Tom leaned forward. "Is it true about--" He paused,
embarrassed. "Well, you hear a lot of stories. But I understand some of
the men on that flight, the ones who got back all right, had children.
And--well, you know how rumors go--"
"Lies," Spencer said, without rancor. "I've got two kids myself. Both of
'em normal."
"Oh." Tom tried to hide his disappointment behind the cocktail glass. It
would have made great copy, if he could have proved the truth of the old
rumor about two-headed babies. But what _could_ Sergeant Spencer do for
the PR program? Andrusco must have had something in mind.
* * * * *
He asked him point-blank.
"It's like this," the man said, his eyes distant. "Since I quit the
service, I haven't been doin' so good. With jobs, I mean. And Mr.
Andrusco--he said he'd give me five thousand dollars if I'd--help you
people."
"Did Mr. Andrusco describe this help?"
"Yeah. He wants me to do a story. About the kid my wife had. The first
kid."
"What about the first kid?"
"Well, she died, the first kid did. In childbirth. It was something
that happens, you know. My wife's a little woman; the baby was
smothered."
"I see. And what kind of story do you want to tell?"
"It's not my idea." A hint of stubbornness glimmered in his dull eyes.
"It's that Andrusco guy's. He wants me to tell how the baby was born
a--mutant."
"What?"
"He wants me to release a story saying the baby was a freak. The kid was
born at home, you see. The only other person who saw her, besides me and
my wife, was this doctor we had. And he died a couple of years back."
Tom slumped in his chair. This was pushing public relations a little
far.
"Well, I dunno," he said. "If the baby was really normal--"
"It was normal, all right. Only dead, that's all."
Tom stood up. "Okay, Sergeant Spencer. Let me think it over, and I'll
give you a buzz before the end of the week. All right?"
"Anything you say, Chief."
* * * * *
In the morning, Tom Blacker went storming into John Andrusco's plush
office.
"Now look, Mr. Andrusco. I don't mind slanting a story a little far. But
this Spencer story of yours is nothing but a hoax."
Andrusco looked hurt. "Did he tell you that? How do you like that
nerve?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why, that story's as genuine as gold. We've known about the freak birth
for a long time. Cosmic rays, you know. Those men on that reconnaissance
flight really got bombarded."