ell bring back Prohibition. And the labor
unions are so busy with internal battles that they haven't had time to
go on strike for over a year."

"Is that bad?" Malone said.

Boyd shrugged. "God knows," he said. "But it's sure confusing as all
hell."

"And now," Malone said, "with all that going on--"

"The Congress of the United States decides to go off its collective
rocker," Boyd finished. "Exactly." He stared down at his cigarette for
a minute with a morose and pensive expression on his face. He looked,
Malone thought, like Henry VIII trying to decide what to do about all
these here wives.

Then he looked up at Malone. "Ken," he said in a strained voice,
"there seem to be a lot of nutty cases lately."

Malone considered. "No," he said at last. "It's just that when a nutty
one comes along, we get it."

"That's what I mean," Boyd said. "I wonder why that is."

Malone shrugged. "It takes a thief to catch a thief," he said.

"But these aren't thieves," Boyd said. "I mean, they're just nutty."
He paused. "Oh," he said.

"And two thieves are better than one," Malone said.

"Anyhow," Boyd said with a small, gusty sigh, "it's company."

"Sure," Malone said.

Boyd looked for an ashtray, failed again to find one, and walked over
to flip a second cigarette out onto Washington. He came back to his
chair, sat down, and said, "What's our next step, Ken?"

Malone considered carefully. "First," he said finally, "we'll start
assuming something. We'll start assuming that there is some kind of
organization behind all this, behind all the senators' resignations
and everything like that."

"It sounds like a big assumption," Boyd said.

Malone shook his head. "It isn't really," he said. "After all, we
can't figure it's the work of one person: it's too widespread for
that. And it's silly to assume that everything's accidental."

"All right," Boyd said equably. "It's an organization."

"Trying to subvert the United States," Malone went on. "Reducing
everything to chaos. And that brings in everything else, Tom. That
brings in the unions and the gang wars and everything."

Boyd blinked. "How?" he said.

"Obvious," Malone said. "Strife brought on by internal confusion,
that's what's going on all over. It's the same pattern. And if we
assume an organization trying to jam up the United States, it even
makes sense." He leaned back and beamed.

"Sure it makes sense," Boyd said. "But who's the organization?"

Malone shr