A pattern of lights sprang into being--yellow, pale rose, blue, soft green. They wove together, intertwined, sprang apart into a sharp hexagon, broke into a scatter-pattern, melted, seemed to fall to the carpet in bright flakes. "Shut that thing off!" Fred snapped suddenly. "Come on! Shut it! _Shut it!_" Walton swung around. His brother was leaning forward intently, eyes clamped tight shut. "Is it off?" Fred asked. "Tell me!" Shrugging, Walton canceled the signal and the lights faded. "You can open your eyes, now. It's off." Cautiously Fred opened his eyes. "None of your fancy tricks, Roy!" "Trick?" Walton asked innocently. "What trick? Simple decoration, that's all--and quite lovely, too. Just like the kaleidowhirls you've seen on video." Fred shook his head. "It's not the same thing. How do I know it's not some sort of hypnoscreen? How do I know what those lights can do?" Walton realized his brother was unfamiliar with wall kaleidoscopes. "It's perfectly harmless," he said. "But if you don't want it on, we can do without it." "Good. That's the way I like it." Walton observed that Fred's cool confidence seemed somewhat shaken. His brother had made a tactical error in insisting on holding their interview here, where Walton had so much the upper hand. "May I ask again why you wanted to see me?" Walton said. "There are those people," Fred said slowly, "who oppose the entire principle of population equalization." "I'm aware of that. Some of them are members of this very club." "Exactly. Some of them are. The ones I mean are the gentry, those still lucky enough to cling to land and home. The squire with a hundred acres in the Matto Grosso; the wealthy landowner of Liberia; the gentleman who controls the rubber output of one of the lesser Indonesian islands. These people, Roy, are unhappy over equalization. They know that sooner or later you and your Bureau will find out about them and will equalize them ... say, by installing a hundred Chinese on a private estate, or by using a private river for a nuclear turbine. You'll have to admit that their dislike of equalization is understandable." "Everyone's dislike of equalization is understandable," Walton said. "I dislike it myself. You got your evidence of that two days ago. No one likes to give up special privileges." "You see my point, then. There are perhaps a hundred of these men in close contact with each other--" "_What!_" "Ah, yes," Fred said. "A league. A conspiracy, it might almost be called. Very, very shady doings." "Yes." "I work for them," Fred said. Walton let that soak in. "You're an employee of Popeek," he said. "Are you inferring that you're both an employee of Popeek and an employee of a group that seeks to undermine Popeek?" Fred grinned proudly. "That's the position on the nose. It calls for remarkable compartmentalization of mind. I think I manage nicely." Incredulously Walton said, "How long has this been going on?"