's being telenized--"

"I'm with you," Newell interrupted. "He still gets the thoughts--visions
and sounds or what have you--but he doesn't have to obey them."

I nodded. My mind was skipping ahead to more immediate problems. "Don't
you suppose we ought to notify Central Investigation Division right
away? This is really a problem for them."

But Newell was there ahead of me. "So was the Memphis affair," he said.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Meaning," the boss continued, "that I'd like to give your hunch a play
first."

"But it's not even a hunch," I objected. "How?"

"Well, by having you interview Grogan, for instance...."

I opened my mouth and almost shook my head, but Newell hurried on.
"Look, Earl, it's been a long time since Intergalaxy has scored a good
news beat. Not since the Memphis expose, in fact. Remember that?
Remember how good it felt to have your name on articles published all
over the world? Remember all the extra cash? The fame?"

I grunted.

"Now before you say anything," Newell said, "remember that when you
started on that case you didn't have a thing more concrete to go on than
you have right now--just a half a hunch. Isn't that right? Admit it!"

"M'm."

"Well, isn't it worth a chance? What can we lose?"

"Me, maybe. But...."

The boss said nothing more. He knew that if he let me do the talking,
I'd soon argue myself into it. Which I did.

Five minutes later, I shrugged. "Okay. What, specifically, do you have
in mind?"

"Let's go back to the office," Newell said.

* * * * *

It was just a short walk. Or, I should say, it would have been a short
walk, if we had walked.

But New York was one of the very last cities to convert to the "level"
transportation system. It had been one hell of an engineering feat, but
for Amerpean ingenuity and enterprise nothing is impossible, so the job
had finally been tackled and completed just within the past year. And
the novelty of the ambulator bands on pedestrian levels was still strong
for native New Yorkers.

So instead of leaving the restaurant on the vehicle level, where we
happened to be, and taking an old fashioned sidewalk stroll to the IGN
building, Newell insisted on taking the escalator up to the next level
and then gliding along on an amband.

That's just the sort of person he is.

When we got back up to his office, he asked, "Isn't there some sort of
defense against telenosis? I mean, other than alc