Later in the day, however, the world’s most sensitive news-nose began to itch. Did, or did not, this quiet, unannounced closing smell ever-so-slighfly of cheese? Wherefore Benjamin Bundy, the newscaster who had covered the starship’s maiden flight, went out himself to look the thing over. He found the Whole field closed. Not only closed, but Gunther-blocked impenetrably tight. He studied the announcement, his sixth sense – the born newsman’s sense for news – probing every word.
‘Regret … research … of such extreme delicacy … vibration … temperature control … one one-hundredth of one degree Centigrade…’
He sought out his long-time acquaintance Banks, finding him in a temporary office half a block away from the Hall. ‘What’s the story, Jerry?’ he asked. ‘The real story. I mean.’
‘You know as much about it as I do, Ben. Garlock and James don’t waste time trying to detail me on that kind of
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business you know.’
This should have satisfied any newshawk, but Bundy’s nose still itched. He mulled things over for a minute, then probed, finding that he could read nothing except Banks’ outermost, most superficial thoughts.
‘Well … maybe … but…’ Then Bundy plunged. ‘All you have to do, Jerry, is tell me screens-half-down that your damn story is true.’
‘That’s the one thing I can’t do,’ Banks admitted; and Bundy could not detect that any part of his sheepishness was feigned. ‘You’re just too damned smart, Ben.’ ‘Oh – one of those things?’ ‘Yup. I told Evans it might not work.’
That should have satisfied the reporter, but it didn’t. ‘Now it doesn’t smell just a trifle cheesy; it stinks like rotten fish. You won’t go screens-down on that one, either.’ ‘No comment.’
‘Ha!’ Bundy said. ‘This must be a story! So big that Gerald Banks, the top press-agent of all time, actually doesn’t want publicity! The starship works – this lack-of-control stuff is the bunk – from here to another star in nothing flat – Oarlock’s back, and he’s brought – what have you got in there, Jerry?’
“The only way I can tell you is in confidence, for Evans’ release. I’d like to, Ben, believe me, but I can’t.’ ‘Confidence, hell! Do you think we won’t get it?’ ‘In that case, no comment.’ The interview ended and the siege began.
Newshounds and detectives questioned and peered and probed. They dug into morgues, tabulating and classifying. They recalled and taped and sifted all the gossip they had heard. They got a picture of sorts, but it was maddeningly confusing and incomplete. And, since it was certain that inter-systemic matters were involved, they could not extrapolate -any guess was far too apt to be wrong. Thus nothing went on the air or appeared in print; and, although the surface remained calm, The Press seethed to its depths.
Wherefore haggard Banks and harried Evans greeted Gar-lock with a good deal of joy when the four wanderers came back to spend the weekend on Earth. Til talk to ’em,’ Garlock decided, after the long story had
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been told. ‘Have somebody get hold of Bundy and ask him to come out.’
‘Get hold of him!’ Banks snorted. ‘He’s here. Twenty-four hours a day. Eating sandwiches and cat-napping on chairs in the lobby. All you have to do is unseal that door.’
Garlock flung the door wide. Bundy rushed in, followed by a more-or-less steady stream of some fifty other top-bracket newspeople, both men and women.
‘Well, Garlock, perhaps you will give us some screens-down facts?’ Bundy asked angrily.
‘I’ll give you all the screens-down —’
‘Clee – you can’t!’ Belle and all the Operators protested at once.
Ignoring the objections, Garlock cut his shield to half and gave the whole group a true account of everything that had happened in the galaxy. Then, while they were all too stunned to speak, a grin of saturnine amusement spread over his dark, five-o’clock-shadowed face.
‘You pests insisted on grabbing the ball,’ he said. ‘Now let’s see you run with it.’
Bundy came out of his trance. ‘What a story!’ he yelled. ‘We’ll plaster it…”
‘Yeah,’ Garlock said dryly. ‘What a story. Exactly.’
‘Oh.’ Bundy deflated suddenly. ‘You’ll have to prove it -demonstrate it – of course.’
‘Of course? You tickle me. Not only do I not have to prove it, I won’t. I won’t even confirm it.’
Bundy glared at Garlock, then whirled on Banks. ‘If you don’t give me this in shape to use, you’ll never get another line or mention anywhere!’
‘Oh, no?’ For the first time in his professional life Banks gloated, openly and avidly. ‘From now on, my friend, who is in the saddle? Who is going to come to whom?’
When the fuming newsmen had gone, Garlock said, ‘It’ll leak, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Banks agreed. ‘ “It is rumored …” and “from a usually reliable source …” and so on. Nothing definite, but each one of them will want to put out the first and biggest.’
‘That’s what I figured. It’ll have to break sometime and I thought easing it out would be best… But wait a minute.’ He
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thought for two solid minutes. ‘We’re going to need a lot of money, and we’re just about broke, aren’t we?’ This thought was addressed to Frank Macey, the Galaxians’ treasurer. ‘Worse than broke – much worse.’
‘I could loan you a couple of credits, Frank,’ Belle said brightly. ‘But go ahead, Clee.’
‘People like to be sidewalk superintendents. Suppose they could watch the construction of an outpost so far away that nobody ever dreamed of ever getting there. Could you do anything with that, Jerry?’
‘Could I!’ Banks said, and whistled.
‘That’s the first good idea any one of you crackpots has had for five years.’ Macey said suddenly. ‘But wouldn’t transportation of material and so on present problems?’
‘No; just buying it,’ Garlock said soberly. ‘Or, rather, paying for it’
‘No trouble there…’
‘What?’ Belle exclaimed. ‘”No trouble, it says here in fine print? How the old skinflint has changed – instead of screaming his head off about spending money he’s actually offering to. Frank, I’ll loan you three credits!’
‘Quiet, the menfolks are talking business. Look, Clee. We’ll use the Pleiades at first, while we’re building a regular transport. A hundred passengers per trip, one thousand credits one way…’
‘Woe!’ Belle said. ‘Our ex-skinflint is now a bare-faced, legally-protected robber.’
‘By no means, Belle,’ Evans said. ‘How much would that be per mile?’
‘Say ten round trips per day. That would be twenty million a day gross for a small ship not intended for passenger service. When we get ships built … and the extras …’ The money-man went into a financial revel of his own.
‘Lots of extras,’ Banks agreed. ‘And oh, brother, what a public-relations dream of heaven!’
‘Maybe I’m dumb,’ Garlock broke in, ‘but just what are you going to use for money to get started?’
The minute we confirm any part of the story, the credit of the Galaxian Society will jump from X-O to AA-A1.’ ‘Oh. So Belle and I will have to lose our Pleiades for awhile.
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I don’t like that, but we do need the money … but we can have her for this coming week?’
‘Of course.’
‘So maybe we’d better break the story now, instead of letting it leak.’
‘Can you, after what you just told them?’
‘Sure I can.’ He set his mind and searched. ‘Bundy, this is Garlock…’
‘So what am I supposed to do – burst into tears of joy?’
‘Save it. I changed my mind. You can break it as fast and as hard as you like. I’ll play along.’
‘Yeah? Why the switch? What’s the angle?’
‘Strictly commercial. Get it from Banks.’
‘And you’ll – personally – go on my hour with it?’
‘Yes. Also, we’ll demonstrate – take you to any star-system in the galaxy. You and all the rest of the newshawks who were here and any fifty VIP’s you want to invite. Tomorrow morning.’
‘You, personally, in the Pleiades!’ Bundy insisted.
‘Better than that. The other two starships, too. You’ve got them – particularly those four Primes – clearly in mind?’
‘Not exactly, there was so much of it. Refresh my memory a bit, okay?’ Garlock did so. “Thanks, pal, for the scoop. I’ll crash it right now, and follow up with Banks. ‘Bye!’
‘Think you can deliver on that, Clee?’ Banks asked.
‘Sure. Both Deggi and Alsyne will need a lot of extra money, fast. They’ll play along.’
They did; and that three-starship tour – which visited twenty solar systems instead of one – was the most sensational thing old Earth had ever spawned.
Belle and Garlock did not spend that weekend on Earth. ‘We go,’ they said, as soon as the Pleiades was empty of pressmen, and they took James and Lola along. ‘If we never see another such brawl as this is going to be,’ Belle told Banks, who was basking in glory and entreating them to stay on for the show, ‘it will be exactly twenty minutes too soon.’