nd in a little while, a transcript will be on this
time line. Want to watch it here, sir?"

* * * * *

The telecast screen in the living room of Tortha Karf's town apartment
was still on; in it, a girl with bright red hair danced slowly to soft
music against a background of shifting color. The four men who sat in
a semicircle facing it sipped their drinks and watched idly.

"Ought to be getting some sort of public reaction soon," Tortha Karf
said, glancing at his watch.

"Well, I'll have to admit, it was done convincingly," Zostha Olv, the
Chief Interoffice Cooerdinator, admitted grudgingly. "I'd have believed
it, if I hadn't known the real facts."

"Shooting it against the background of those wide windows was smart,"
Lovranth Rolk said. "Every schoolchild would recognize that view of
the rocketport as being on Police Terminal. And including that girl
Zinganna; that was a real masterpiece!"

"I've met her, a few times," Elbraz Vark, the Political Liaison
Assistant, said. "Isn't she lovely!"

"Good actress, too," Tortha Karf said. "It's not easy to impersonate
yourself."

"Well, Kostran Galth did a fine job of acting, too," Lovranth Rolk
said. "That was done to perfection--the distinguished politician,
supported by his loyal mistress, bravely facing the disgraceful end of
his public career."

"You know, I believe I could get that girl a booking with one of the
big theatrical companies. Now that Salgath's dead, she'll need
somebody to look after her."

"What sharp, furry ears you have, Mr. Elbraz!" Zostha Olv grunted.

The music stopped as though cut off with a knife, and the slim girl
with the red hair vanished in a shatter of many colors. When the
screen cleared, one of the announcers was looking out of it.

"We interrupt the program for an important newscast of a sensational
development in the Salgath affair," he said. "Your next speaker will
be Yandar Yadd--"

"I thought you'd managed to get that blabbermouth transposed to
PolTerm," Zostha said.

"He wouldn't go." Tortha Karf replied. "Said it was just a trick to
get him off Home Time Line during the Council crisis."

Yandar Yadd had appeared on the screen as the pickup swung about.

"... Recording ostensibly made by Councilman Salgath on Police
Terminal Time Line, and telecast on Home Time Line an hour ago. Well,
I don't know who he was, but I now have positive proof that he
definitely was not Salgath Trod!"

"We'