Alan E. Nourse by Psi-High & Others

Author:Psi-High & Others [Psi-High & Others]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-02-16T03:04:52+00:00

IV

Ted Marino left to give his men a final briefing, arranging to meet Faircloth back in the concourse five minutes later. Paul found a visiphone relay booth, and sank his long, lean body down in a relaxer facing the screen. The last of the rush .hour people were still drifting by in the corridor;

Paul watched them anxiously. If only he could talk to JeanI He wondered what she would think of the news item from Des Moines. He battled an impulse to call her, then compromised and dialed the priority code for the Federal Security Commission offices in Washington.

The relays clicked, and the code carried him through the front-line secretaries without any trouble. He gave a sigh of relief. He was in no mood to argue with secretaries. A moment later he was blinking at Roberts’-D image on the screen.

Roberts’face, usually quite youthful in sharp contrast to his gray hair, looked haggard now. He nodded to Faircloth. “You got there, then. Good. How does it look, Paul?”

“Everything’s just real nice,” Faircloth growled. “They think they’ve got him pinned. I hope so. The building here has a central power source, and we can bottleneck the whole place if we time it right.”

“Don’t miss, Paul.” Roberts’voice was tense. “Whatever you do, don’t miss.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Ben Towne has worked his way into this.”

“Well, that figures. But what can he do?”

“Maybe a lot, if we miss this time. He has the whole Isolationist Party behind him, and the Liberals can’t hold out long on no results. Towne has a whole lot of people worried about these alien rumors, and if we don’t wrap it up fast I’m afraid things here in the Capitol are going to blow sky high.”

Faircloth scowled. “Did you see the newstapes tonight?” “You mean the Bishop girl in Des Moines?” Roberts nodded unhappily. “Got the report from Des Moines on it this afternoon. Trumped up from beginning to end. I tell you, Towne is not playing around. I don’t know just how he plans to work tilings, but I’m afraid that story was just a starter. He’ll do everything he can to spread the rumor without an outright Security leak, and he’ll do his best to connect the alien with the Psi-Highs in the public eye. And you know Ben Towne when he gets rolling. The way things are in the Senate now, that could mean trouble.”

“Who’s controlling Security news releases?”

Roberts gave a short laugh. “I am, of course. But they’re monitored by the Cabinet, and Towne is on the Cabinet. Don’t miss tonight, my friend.”

Faircloth nodded, and signaled off. He sat swearing quietly to himself for a few moments. Then he saw Marino and swung out into the hall again, glancing at his watch. “Ready?” Marino nodded. “I’ve got teams placed on the forty-first and forty-third. Power goes off when we step off the elevator on the forty-first. Okay?”

Faircloth grunted, and spread out a floor plan of the Forty- second floor, studying the careful pencil marks. “Is the building all clear?”

“The commercial levels, yes.

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