up
slowly, a muscle in his face flinched and then he smiled--with all but
his eyes. "All right," he snapped, "we'll begin with me. I'll fill you
in plenty! You want to know if I saw Carmack the day of the murder? I
did! The louse put through a vis call to me. _Insisted_ I come out and
see him--"

"Whoa, now just a minute! You wouldn't say this was a friendly visit?"

"I'll get to that!" Pederson's words came fast and clipped. "You know
how I fought the ECAIAC lobby. I fought it long and hard, and when I
lost it finished me with the public. But I wasn't through! I began
digging up every fact I could about Carmack. Took me a few years, but
worth it. Most of it smelled! Ask Professor Losch, he'll tell you--"

"I've already spoken with Losch," Beardsley said quietly. "He managed to
convey his sentiments pretty thoroughly."

"Good. Then try talking to _him_," Pederson nodded venomously at
_Mandleco_. "Ask Mandleco how the great Carmack managed to get those
patents through.... I can tell you he didn't do it alone! Oh, I've dug
plenty!"

"Why, you--" Mandleco gave a snort of anger and started forward, but
Beardsley managed to forestall him. He gazed sternly at the
tele-columnist.

"I think we're all aware of your considerable talent for digging,
Pederson. ECAIAC, too," he added pointedly, "for we already have it on
the tapes."

Pederson bristled. "Sure. Sure, you have it! My past connection, my
opposition to the lobby, even my digging maybe. But you don't have it
all! How do you equate _hate_, Beardsley? Is _that_ on your tapes?"

Beardsley could have told him that it was, indeed, on the tapes. But he
only shook his head. "No," he said slowly, "we don't have it all. Not
ECAIAC nor I nor any of us, and that's the eternal pity of it. But I'd
like to try! The sum and the substance, Pederson ... don't you
understand me? Just once before I'm through--"

* * * * *

It was the voice, some secret and subtle thing in the voice that reached
out and gripped Pederson and bore meaning with it. He stood quite
motionless, staring at Beardsley; for a split second his eyes widened,
then disbelief gave way to something of comprehension, admiration.

"Beardsley," he said softly. "You fool. You utter damned fool!"

Oblivious of the others, then, he turned and began to pace. "All right.
Here it is. Carmack called me out to see him. He had gotten wind of what
I was up to, and offered to buy me off." Ped