We're Friends, Now Part 4

Mandleco turned quickly. "Eh? What do you mean?"

"Well ... how would _you_ feel if you had just been handed the news, out of the blue, that someone you loved had been brutally murdered? ECAIAC reacted, is all. She must have regarded Carmack as a father--"

Arnold looked up in amazement. "Beardsley, will you stop that crazy nonsense!"

"Nonsense?" Beardsley appeared hurt. "Why--you said yourself that you wanted me and ECAIAC to become great friends!" He appealed to Mandleco.

"That's what he said, sir, and he even took pains to introduce me and all, and--"

"It was in the nature of a joke, sir!" Arnold's voice rose an octave. "A private little joke, and he's trying to make it appear--"

"Stop it, stop it!" Mandleco thundered. "Arnold--you get that new unit installed on the double! Put your best men on it. That's an order!

Beardsley, I'm glad you had the presence of mind to contact me.

Commendable, most commendable."

Arnold scowled, hit Beardsley with an accusing look.

"Above all," said Mandleco, "not a word of this must leak! _d.a.m.n_ it, why should this have to happen _now_? Public confidence will be undermined if they think ECAIAC is--is--"

"Not infallible?" suggested Beardsley.

"Exactly. You hear me, Arnold? Not a word of this must get out!"

"I'm sure it won't," Arnold glared venomously at Beardsley, "if you'll just keep _him_ away from the tele-stats."

The Minister of Justice walked away, still muttering something about public confidence and political repercussions. Beardsley kept pace beside him until they were across the room. Then he spoke, timidly at first.

"Pardon me, sir, but--I'd like to ask you something." His voice was low and confidential. "If you'll just look around you...."

"Eh?" Mandleco followed Beardsley's gesture, and for the first time he seemed to see the room in total. Shards of gla.s.s lay everywhere. A great tangle of wire was strewn half the length of ECAIAC, and a bank of transistors reposed against the far wall in pitiful ruin. The techs had already started a strip-down, their tools and units across the floor adding to the general confusion.

Mandleco said, "Well? What is it you--" His words stopped as if sliced in two by his teeth. "Yes. Yes, by G.o.d, I see what you mean!"

"Can you really conceive of operation in two hours? _Two hours_," Arnold said. "Two days, maybe. More likely in two weeks!"

Mandleco groaned as if in pain, staring around.

Beardsley pressed his point. "You'll pardon my saying it, sir, but I _do_ realize what the Carmack Case means--to you personally. So much build-up and publicity, and the people demanding a verdict ... why, if the case were to snag now--"

"Unthinkable!" A shudder touched Mandleco's long, lean frame. "Out with it, man! What are you trying to say?"

Beardsley was suddenly sweating. He felt as if a long tube were inside of him, hot and throbbing, reaching up with a surge of pulse to his temples. _It had to be now. He had to say it._

"Well," he gulped. "Just this, sir. I think the case can be cracked right now. Today. _Without_ ECAIAC."

"Nonsense! Without ECAIAC? Why, that's--"

"Sure. You think it's crazy. But I tell you _I_ can do it!" Beardsley's words came fast and urgent. "I've followed this case from the beginning, I processed it, I'm familiar with every angle. I tell you, _I can deliver the killer_. Give me permission to try!"

Mandleco stared at Beardsley as if he were some queer specimen under a microscope; his mouth opened to speak, then he clamped his teeth tightly and strode away.

He turned back abruptly. "So you think you have the solution. You actually--do--think it!" His eyes narrowed down, no longer amused, as he fixed the little serologist with a peculiar gaze. "Go on, Beardsley.

Your suggestion at least has the novelty of imagination!"

"The novelty of experience," Beardsley said bitterly. "_With your permission and co-operation_ I can solve this case, together with positive evidence that will hold up in any court! What's more, I'll do it today. A guarantee," Beardsley said pointedly, "which I dare say you no longer have from ECAIAC."

Mandleco stood quite motionless, trying to recall something. "Now I remember! You were with New York Homicide, weren't you, before promotion to Coordinates in '60? I recall pa.s.sing on your record. Top record, too, for those days."

Beardsley gestured impatiently. "How about it, sir? I know every pertinent fact of this case, plus a few of my own which haven't been tested in a dozen years. Not indexes and tubes and tapes--just facts!

Fact and method! Let me apply them!"

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as that, Beardsley. There _is_ ECAIAC, and public confidence must not be allowed--"

"The public be d.a.m.ned," Beardsley caught himself. "All right--for appearance sake you can say the solution _came_ from ECAIAC. Let ECAIAC verify me later if you wish. I'm not after headlines and glory ... by heaven, sir, I'm offering you an _out_!"

Mandleco pondered that. He glanced again at the confusion across the room, and realization seemed to hit him. Quite suddenly, then, he threw back his head and roared with laughter.

"An out. And by heaven, Beardsley, I'm offering you a try! The idea appeals to me! Beardsley versus ECAIAC ... socio-archaism opposed to the _machina-ratiocinatrix_. Why, it's delicious!" He subsided to a rumble of mirth and wiped tears from his eyes. "So! Just what do you propose?"

Beardsley saw nothing amusing. "I propose first, sir, that we reach an understanding. I'm to conduct the investigation my own way, without interference?"

"You have my word! I never violate it."

"Good. Then start using your word right now. There are three persons I want placed in temporary custody; they are to be brought over here at once for questioning."

Mandleco looked appalled. "Questioning? _Here?_"

"Yes, right here. Immediately! The three I want are Mrs. Carmack--I happen to know she's still in the city. And Brook Pederson--you should reach him easily at Central News Bureau. The third--"

"Would that be Professor Losch?" Mandleco smugly asked. "Sorry, but Losch happens to be in Bermuda right now."

Beardsley said sharply: "How did you know that?"

"Why, I--I'm acquainted with Losch, you know. He was planning a vacation, and he mentioned Bermuda--"

"No. I don't mean that. _How did you know Losch was my third person?_"

Mandleco bristled a little, his face reddening as he groped for an answer. "Never mind," Beardsley waved it aside. "If Losch is in Bermuda at present we'll reach him by tele-stat right now!" He was suddenly crisp as he propelled the Minister of Justice toward Jeff Arnold's office.

Mandleco stared at this little man, wondering if it were the same person he had been talking to just minutes before. "Now see here, Beardsley--"

But he was interrupted.