"I did mention a slight reticence; a certain lack of volubility on the part of mine host. This," said Stacey pointedly, "is the first time I've seen Nora Phillips close enough to let someone else touch her." "Careful," said Paul. "This place is wired for sound, no doubt." "We're not telling anything that the Management does not know," said Stacey. "And if we are, they'll not interrupt. Go on, Nora. Give. Remember, I'm the detective. In the novels I'm the guy who knows all the answers, forms the decisions, finds the clues, and solves the case. Just furnish me with one answer, one clue, one decision, and one solution and we'll have Professor Moriarity in gaol by morning." Nora frowned at Stacey. "You take this lightly." "I shall--as soon as I can get some--bedeck me out in sackcloth." Paul, who knew Stacey's manner, shook his head at Nora. He pressed her hand a moment and then said, "Nora, some people get mad at the milkman and then take out their mad at everybody else they meet for a week. The other extreme is Stacey, who has the viewpoint that he and we are still alive." "I'm that way," nodded Stacey. "No one ever got anywhere by yelling about the bum deal they got. It's the guy who puts his head down and shoves--and the bird that gets mad at the universe because some bum stepped on his foot in the subway is the guy who loses a lot of friends." "I'm--" "Forget it and tell us," suggested Stacey. "This is a political battle," said Nora. Then she went on to explain, as Huston had explained to Paul. When she finished, Paul smiled knowingly. "What?" she asked him. "Hoagland's gang bumped off the guy that clipped me because he flopped. But on Proxima there was another guy made up to resemble me--and he was clipped by someone else." Paul looked at Nora. "Probably the same guy that so conveniently provided a recording of your voice to convince me that I'd solved the problem of Z-wave transmission," he said sharply. Nora shrugged. "That was Ed Link," she said simply. "What happened?" "Someone dropped what looked like a meteor shower on the bird." "That sounds like Link's idea of handling it," she said. "But the deceased?" asked Stacey. "Upon whose side was he aligned?" "Not on Hoagland's." "Certainly not on Huston's." "Nora--tell me--why did you make that false recording?" Nora looked at Paul, and then pulled him to her and hugged his head against her cheek for a moment. "Paul, as a scientist you couldn't understand the man on the street. We wanted something to show Neoterra. You don't understand this. But Paul, what would have happened if you had gotten away with it?" "But I did not." "Just pretend. Set up a hypothesis for a minute. Suppose that you had been able to convince the Terran Physical Society that you had received Z-waves from Terra while you were on Proxima I."