g and
fastened with a barrette at the back. It swished like a horse's tail
whenever she moved her head.

At 42, she had attained her goal of becoming a professor and now had
her sights on the department chair. She was adept at playing the
system. A political pro.

"Last, but not least, here beside me, is Annette Pringle, zoology,"
finished Henry.

Annette nodded in recognition of the introduction and then turned her
eyes again to the stack of papers in front of her. She was scared. It
was her first committee assignment since her appointment as assistant
professor at Belmont and she didn't want to be here. Everything was
wrong about this hearing. It was plain as could be that Trenchant was
being railroaded. Nobody at Belmont ever considered student feedback
forms anything more than an exercise in futility.

What a nothing, inconsequential charge--yet here she was with the rest
of the panel who all appeared to think this was the most serious crime
since the Holocaust.

Annette hadn't dared to refuse Henry's request after the way the Vee
had questioned her. He had come unannounced to her office to ask her
to serve on this hearing panel. He explained to her how important
serving on university committees could be and how they beefed up a
curriculum vita.

Then, right out of the blue, apropos of nothing he had said, "I
understand you and your friend, Joan, live together." It could have
been just an innocent remark, but Annette, with years of suspicion and
threats to remember, didn't think so. He knows, she thought and the
thought stuck in her throat and choked her with fear. Her weak
protests that she really didn't think she had experience enough yet to
qualify for the panel had been swept aside and here she was.

Henry's thoughts were similar. He smiled in triumph. It really paid
to check people out carefully. You could find out the damndest things.
Things people were afraid of getting out. Things Henry could used to
control them.

Still smiling, he turned to the papers before him and in rapid order,
introduced into evidence, Medical School Dean Broadhurst's letter of
charges, a memo from the Chairman of NERD, Dr. Lyle Stone, and the two
files containing the material sent out from Belmont to the document
examiners.

"These are the items," the Academic Vice President and Chair of the
hearing panel committee asserted, holding up the files, "that the
hearing is about."

"We will commence by having