den look in his eye. "How soon?"

"You want yesterday's rushes?"

"What do you think I want? Any sign of a lag?"

"Not a hint. Last night's panel drew like a magnet. The D-Date tag you
suggested has them by the nose."

"How about the President's talk?"

The man from Analysis grinned. "He should be campaigning."

Tommy mopped his forehead with his shirtsleeve. "Okay. Now listen: we
need a special run on all response data we have for tolerance levels.
Got that? How soon can we have it?"

Analysis shook his head. "We could only make a guess with the data so
far."

"Fine," said Tommy. "Make a guess."

"Give us three hours," said Analysis.

"You've got thirty minutes. Get going."

Turning back to Pete, Tommy rubbed his hands eagerly. "It's starting to
sell, boy. I don't know how strong or how good, but it's starting to
sell! With the tolerance levels to tell us how long we can expect this
program to quiet things down, we can give Charlie a deadline to crack
his differential factor, or it's the ax for Charlie." He chuckled to
himself, and paced the room in an overflow of nervous energy. "I can see
it now. Open shafts instead of elevators. A quick hop to Honolulu for an
afternoon on the beach, and back in time for supper. A hundred miles to
the gallon for the Sunday driver. When people begin _seeing_ what the
Grdznth are giving us, they'll welcome them with open arms."

"Hmmm," said Pete.

"Well, why won't they? The people just didn't trust us, that was all.
What does the man in the street know about transmatters? Nothing. But
give him one, and then try to take it away."

"Sure, sure," said Pete. "It sounds great. Just a little bit _too_
great."

Tommy blinked at him. "Too great? Are you crazy?"

"Not crazy. Just getting nervous." Pete jammed his hands into his
pockets. "Do you realize where _we're_ standing in this thing? We're out
on a limb--way out. We're fighting for time--time for Charlie and his
gang to crack the puzzle, time for the Grdznth girls to gestate. But
what are we hearing from Charlie?"

"Pete, Charlie can't just--"

"That's right," said Pete. "_Nothing_ is what we're hearing from
Charlie. We've got no transmatter, no null-G, no power, nothing except a
whole lot of Grdznth and more coming through just as fast as they can.
I'm beginning to wonder what the Grdznth _are_ giving us."

"Well, they can't gestate forever."

"Maybe not, but I still have a burning desire to talk to Charlie.
S