get back and tell them. Because Edwin was all
set to start production on the all-weather suit immediately, and if he
actually went through with that and got a few million of them onto
consumer's backs, the result would be not panic, but disaster.

And Charles' present problem was how to get home without being
arrested.

* * * * *

It was then that one individual got an extremely tough break, and
Charles got his first lucky one.

A turbocar came barreling down the highway and, without warning struck
an embankment. The driver was thrown fifty feet from the wreckage.

Under different circumstances, he would never have considered doing
what he did then. The penalty for wearing another person's name tag
was severe. But Charles was under an extreme emotional strain; and
without even thinking, he bent over the limp grey form of the other
marlon and removed his tag.

He straightened, then, clutching the plastic band and looking around
at the smoking wreck. Already, he could hear a siren somewhere in the
night.

He slipped the name tag over his head and struck out through the
bushes toward the city.

His plan was simple; he had another name tag in his apartment for
emergency purposes, and if Ingrid was in bed he'd have no trouble
getting it, destroying the one he was wearing now, and putting on his
other suit.

Briefly, he wondered what the police would think of finding a body
near a smashed car with no name tag. They'd probably decide it was the
same person that had caused the disturbance at the night club earlier
in the evening.

Charles realized that the lettering on the car had indicated it was a
public, coin-operated vehicle, so the authorities would have no means
of identifying the body.

After awhile it occurred to him that if he should go into hiding
someplace, the body might easily be identified as his own, and he
wouldn't have to worry about what Edwin and the other bosses would do
to him. It probably wouldn't be noticed that the torn and
blood-spattered clothes on the corpse were not thermostatic. But he
shook his head resolutely. Even if he were crazy enough to try it, the
body would be reported missing by somebody or other, so that would
never do.

Eventually, Charles reached a main thoroughfare in the city and hailed
a cab. He climbed in the back, told the driver briefly to take him
home, and then slumped down in the seat and brooded.

He stared out the window, watc