thing had happened, something was
wrong. "What's the matter, Dan?" he said smoothly. "You need more
time? Why? You had it before, and you were pretty eager to toss it up.
Well, what's happened, Dan?"

That was all. Back against the wall. The thought of bluffing it
through, swallowing the December 15th date and telling them to shove
it flashed through his mind. He threw it out violently, his heart
sinking. That was only a few more days. They had weeks of work ahead
of them. They needed more time, they _had_ to have it--

Rinehart was grinning confidently. "Of course I'd like to cooperate,
Dan. Only I have some plans for the Hearings, too. You've been getting
on people's nerves, down in the city. There's even been talk of
reconsidering your rejuvenation permit--"

Your move, Dan. God, what a blunder! Why did you ever come up here?
And every minute you stand there with your jaw sagging just tells
Rinehart how tight he's got you--_do_ something, _anything_--

There was a way. Would Carl understand it? Carl had begged him never
to use it, ever, under any circumstances. And Carl had trusted him
when he had said he wouldn't--but if Carl were standing here now, he'd
say yes, go ahead, use it, wouldn't he? He'd have to--

"I want the Hearings on February 15th," Dan said to Rinehart.

"Sorry, Dan. We can't be tossing dates around like that. Unless you'd
care to tell me why."

"Okay." Dan grabbed his hat angrily. "I'll make a formal request for
the change tomorrow morning, and read it on the teevies. Then I'll
also announce a feature attraction that the people can look forward
to when the Hearing date comes. We weren't planning to use it, but I
guess you'd like to have both barrels right in the face, so that's
what we'll give you."

Walter Rinehart roared with laughter. "_Another_ feature attraction?
You do dig them up, don't you? Ken Armstrong's dead, you know."

"Peter Golden's widow isn't."

* * * * *

The smile faded on Rinehart's face. He looked suddenly like a man
carved out of grey stone. Dan trembled, let the words sink in. "You
didn't think _anybody_ knew about that, did you, Walt? Sorry. We've
got the story on Peter Golden. Took us quite a while to piece it
together, but we did with the help of his son. Carl remembers his
father before the accident, you see, quite well. His widow remembers
him even before that. And we have some fascinating recordings that
Peter Golden made whe