rgeoning embarrassment
and foreboding, but he put it down with an effort before it reached the
edge of fear. _Not today_, he thought fiercely. _No, by God, I just
won't permit it to happen._

There. So! He felt much better already. And he had really made good time
this morning. Today of _all_ days he mustn't keep ECAIAC waiting.

[Illustration: Beardsley was the only one _not_ to panic when the
infallible machine broke down.]

Mustn't.... Something triggered in Beardsley, and he was assailed with a
perverse rebellion at the thought.

* * * * *

Must not? But why not? Why shouldn't he just _once_ keep ECAIAC and Jeff
Arnold and his clique stewing in their own tangle of tubes and
electronic juice? And wouldn't _this_, he gloated, be the perfect day
for it! Arnold especially--just once to shatter that young man's
complacent routine....

No. Beardsley savored the thought tastily, and let it trickle away, and
the look of glee on his cherubic face was gone. For too many years his
job as serological "cooerdinator" (Crime-Central) had kept him pinned to
the concomitant routine. Pinned or crucified, it was all the same; in
crime analysis as in everything these days, personal sense of
achievement had been too unsubtly annihilated. Recalling his just
completed task--the Citizen Files and _persona-tapes_ and the endless
annotating--Beardsley felt himself sinking still further into that mire
of futility that encompassed neither excitement nor particular pride.

He brought himself back with a grimace, aware that he was clutching the
briefcase of tapes possessively from long habit. The pilot had touched
the news-stat, and abruptly one of the new "commerciappeals" grated on
Beardsley's senses:

"... we repeat, yes, PROT-O-SUDS is now available in _flake_ or _cake_ or
the new attachable _luxury-spray_. Remember, PROT-O-SUDS has _never_ been
laboratory-tested, it contains _no_ miracle ingredients, _no_ improved
scientific formula, and NO LANOLIN. Then what is the new PROT-O-SUDS? I
tell you frankly, friends, it is nothing but a lot of pure soft soap!
Remember ... we make no fabulous claims for PROT-O-SUDS ... we assume that
you are reasonably clean to start with! And now for your late breakfast
news, PROT-O-SUDS takes you direct to the Central News Bureau for a final
survey on the Carmack murder case...."

Beardsley groaned. New voice in the background, while the screen presented
a slow montage.