straight. You’ve been having trouble with your Starhomer social assay data, haven’t you?’
‘Of course I have. There’s been a shocking delay on processing the 8c material through Integration – if you hadn’t sent me to the spaceport, I was going to chase it today and raise a little hell.’
‘I know. Well, the delays you’ve suffered haven’t been accidental. There’s a cell of League sympathizers in Integration – two key programmers included. And they’ve been weighting the findings of our survey missions with false data. Tomas discovered this some days ago and reported to me; I told him to say nothing until we had a clearer picture of what alterations were being made and the likely reason for such sabotage. Also we hoped – Yes?’ Tinescu cocked an eyebrow on seeing that I wanted to say something.
My anger was subsiding; I might have known it would take something really serious to make Tinescu commit such a flagrant breach of good manners as asking for me to be tested on a lie-detector.
‘Micky Torres knows,’ I said. ‘This was why I was going to call him today – in fact, it’s the main reason I’m due to see him in England this week-end. He’s been complaining about anomalies in the 8a and 8b data, which we sent him last month. I thought he was being excessively critical, and I had it in mind to soothe him and make him look over the files again. But this of course changes everything. I still don’t see, though, how it connects with me.’
‘I was just about to explain. We hoped that by leaving the League sympathizers alone for a while, we could tempt them into being over-bold. I believe we’ve succeeded. They began to look around for new recruits, and not unnaturally one of the first people their eyes lighted on was – you.’
‘Not unnaturally?’ I echoed. ‘Damn it, chief —!’
‘Why not?’ His tone was bitter. ‘Roald, you’re one of the most talented people in this whole Bureau, and you prefer to spend your time fiddling away with Viridis material, nice soft cosy cultural data, instead of doing what anyone with your gifts damned well ought to do. Which is get stuck into alien contact work and tackle a job with substance!’
‘Now look here—!’ I exploded.
‘Oh, shut up. Even if it’s unpleasant, it’s the truth. Andit’s not my personal opinion alone. It’s so obvious that even these lame-brained League members spotted it and concluded the only explanation must be that you didn’t care to dirty your hands working for alien races. So they took it for granted you were temperamentally in sympathy with them.’
Klabund gave a cough. ‘I don’t think there’s any point in my staying any longer, is there?’ he suggested. I noticed he was avoiding my eyes; Tinescu had tempted him into what was strictly a breach of legal investigatory procedure, and – as one might have expected – he’d taken a dislike to me in consequence, as the indirect cause of his lapse of discretion and the absolutely direct cause of it being exposed. I hoped I wouldn’t have any more to do with this brown-haired man, and I was fairly sure he’d keep from further contact if he could.
Tinescu agreed that he should go, and the moment the door had closed I let go the pent-up fury which I hadn’t wanted to release in a stranger’s presence. I was really amazed at myself, for normally I’d never have talked back to my boss in this violent fashion.
‘Now you can say what you like about my preferring to stay in social assay instead of going over to alien contact! But there’s one fact you can’t deny, isn’t there? My department gets run! Have I ever had a foul-up as bad as this one that’s just broken on the alien side? The Bureau has let the Starhomers stampede it into a hopeless mess over these Tau Cetians – a delegation brought in without warning, a courier on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and that’s probably not more than half the story!’
‘Roald!’ Tinescu shot
‘Of course I have. There’s been a shocking delay on processing the 8c material through Integration – if you hadn’t sent me to the spaceport, I was going to chase it today and raise a little hell.’
‘I know. Well, the delays you’ve suffered haven’t been accidental. There’s a cell of League sympathizers in Integration – two key programmers included. And they’ve been weighting the findings of our survey missions with false data. Tomas discovered this some days ago and reported to me; I told him to say nothing until we had a clearer picture of what alterations were being made and the likely reason for such sabotage. Also we hoped – Yes?’ Tinescu cocked an eyebrow on seeing that I wanted to say something.
My anger was subsiding; I might have known it would take something really serious to make Tinescu commit such a flagrant breach of good manners as asking for me to be tested on a lie-detector.
‘Micky Torres knows,’ I said. ‘This was why I was going to call him today – in fact, it’s the main reason I’m due to see him in England this week-end. He’s been complaining about anomalies in the 8a and 8b data, which we sent him last month. I thought he was being excessively critical, and I had it in mind to soothe him and make him look over the files again. But this of course changes everything. I still don’t see, though, how it connects with me.’
‘I was just about to explain. We hoped that by leaving the League sympathizers alone for a while, we could tempt them into being over-bold. I believe we’ve succeeded. They began to look around for new recruits, and not unnaturally one of the first people their eyes lighted on was – you.’
‘Not unnaturally?’ I echoed. ‘Damn it, chief —!’
‘Why not?’ His tone was bitter. ‘Roald, you’re one of the most talented people in this whole Bureau, and you prefer to spend your time fiddling away with Viridis material, nice soft cosy cultural data, instead of doing what anyone with your gifts damned well ought to do. Which is get stuck into alien contact work and tackle a job with substance!’
‘Now look here—!’ I exploded.
‘Oh, shut up. Even if it’s unpleasant, it’s the truth. Andit’s not my personal opinion alone. It’s so obvious that even these lame-brained League members spotted it and concluded the only explanation must be that you didn’t care to dirty your hands working for alien races. So they took it for granted you were temperamentally in sympathy with them.’
Klabund gave a cough. ‘I don’t think there’s any point in my staying any longer, is there?’ he suggested. I noticed he was avoiding my eyes; Tinescu had tempted him into what was strictly a breach of legal investigatory procedure, and – as one might have expected – he’d taken a dislike to me in consequence, as the indirect cause of his lapse of discretion and the absolutely direct cause of it being exposed. I hoped I wouldn’t have any more to do with this brown-haired man, and I was fairly sure he’d keep from further contact if he could.
Tinescu agreed that he should go, and the moment the door had closed I let go the pent-up fury which I hadn’t wanted to release in a stranger’s presence. I was really amazed at myself, for normally I’d never have talked back to my boss in this violent fashion.
‘Now you can say what you like about my preferring to stay in social assay instead of going over to alien contact! But there’s one fact you can’t deny, isn’t there? My department gets run! Have I ever had a foul-up as bad as this one that’s just broken on the alien side? The Bureau has let the Starhomers stampede it into a hopeless mess over these Tau Cetians – a delegation brought in without warning, a courier on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and that’s probably not more than half the story!’
‘Roald!’ Tinescu shot
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