he group gathered in the conference room
were all in agreement on that--but what? The problem was two-fold:
what to do about the possibility that Trenchant would bring a
plagiarism suit against the department, and how to wipe out years of
bad SmurFFs for Ian and Randy.

"You realize that we could just get rid of her by invoking the clause
in her contract that designates she's first in the department fired if
the department has financial problems?"

"That wouldn't help much, she could still sue for plagiarism. If we
fired her, even justifiably, the papers would play the plagiarism stuff
up."

"There is another way--by discrediting her first and making the student
evaluations invalid."

"How!"

"During my last trip to New York, I heard about some special services
that were available."

"Special services? You mean a hit man? That wouldn't help the
evaluations."

"No. Something else, entirely. Give me a few weeks and then follow
through with what you are presented with. It may be expensive, though.
Can I count on some help in that direction?"

"No problem. You come through on this and we'll give you all the help
you want."

The others present nodded in agreement and the meeting ended.

He could hear the phone ringing in Anderson's office. Ah, there he
was. "Andy, no names, please. I'm on the office phone. You recognize
my voice?

"Yeah, sure. How they hanging?"

"Remember our conversation where you told me about the special services
guy?

"Yeah."

"Can you put me in touch with him?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks, later."

He got to the appointed restaurant early and asked for the booth
reserved for Smith as he had been instructed. It was amazing how those
New York City taxi drivers knew a hole in the wall place like this.

Soon, he was joined by a well dressed, obviously well educated man who
ordered drinks for both of them.

"I understand that you have need of our services. How may we be of
help?"

"I need to have some papers forged. It has to be a foolproof forgery
that will not be exposed if the papers are examined by a handwriting
analyst."

"That will be expensive, but not impossible. We charge by the number
of words and the number of papers or documents you need." The price of
each was then given.

"Whew, that is steep."

"Yes it is. But you want foolproof. Ordinary forgers are a dime a
dozen, but we employ only the most expert. These are people who are
trained in documen