doesn't know I can run it as well as you can--or better--but I could
tell him--and maybe you think I wouldn't!"

"You won't have to. Gene, you can start spreading the news that Belle
Bellamy is a real, honest-to-God Prime Operator in every respect. That
she knows more about Project Gunther than I do and could run it better.
Ferber undoubtedly knows that Belle and I have been at loggerheads ever
since we first met--spread it thick that we're fighting worse than ever.
Which, by the way, is the truth."

"Fighting? Why, you seemed friendly enough...."

"Yeah, we can be friendly for about fifteen minutes if we try real hard,
as now. The cold fact is, though, that she's just as much three-quarters
hellcat and one-quarter potassium cyanide as she...."

"I like _that!_" Belle stormed. She leaped to her feet, her eyes
shooting sparks. "All _my_ fault! Why, you self-centered, egotistical,
domineering jerk, I could write a book...."

"That's enough--let it go--_please!_" Evans pleaded. He jumped up, took
each of the combatants by a shoulder, sat them down into the chairs they
had vacated, and resumed his own seat. "The demonstration was eminently
successful. I will spread the word, through several channels. Chancellor
Ferber will get it all, rest assured."

"And _I'll_ get the job!" Belle snapped. "And maybe you think I won't
take it!"

"Yeah?" came Garlock's searing thought. "You'd do anything to get it and
to keep it. Yeah. I _do_ think."

"Oh?" Belle's body stiffened, her face hardened. "I've heard stories, of
course, but I couldn't quite ... but surely, he can't be _that_
stupid--to think he can buy me like so many pounds of calf-liver?"

"He surely is. He does. And it works. That is, if he's ever missed,
nobody ever heard of it."

"But how could a man in such a big job _possibly_ get away with such
foul stuff as that?"

"Because all the SSE is interested in is money, and Alonzo P. Ferber is
a tremendously able top executive. In the big black-and-red money books
he's always 'way, 'way up in the black, and nobody cares about his
conduct."

* * *

Belle, even though she was already convinced, glanced questioningly at
Evans.

"That's it, Miss Bellamy. That's it, in a precise, if somewhat crude,
nutshell."

"That's that, then. But just how, Clee--if he's as smart as you say he
is--do you think you can make him fire you?"

"I don't know--haven't thought about it yet. But I could be