Quick flicker, again a close-up of ECAIAC, and the drama-laden voice:
"ECAIAC! Electronic Analysis Integrator and Computor. And now--an
exclusive! From a very reliable source this reporter has learned that
_three Primes_ are involved...."
"Ha!" grated Beardsley.
"... and they will be broken down in quotient. Two must ultimately be
eliminated--barring, of course, the possible emergence of any minor
factor to status of Prime, which at this stage seems unlikely. It is
estimated that by today or tomorrow at the latest Carmack's murderer
will be brought to justice...."
Beardsley had taken as much as he could of this pseudo-factual mush. He
jerked forward violently, rapped the pilot on the shoulder. "DAMN IT!
WILL YOU SHUT THE DAMN THING OFF!"
* * * * *
He was immediately appalled at his outburst, and by the pilot's startled
glance, but the stat went off immediately.
Beardsley leaned back muttering to himself. Carmack, Carmack! For seven
weeks now he had lived with it intricately and intimately, as the case
shoved everything else right off the news-stat. People took the latest
echoes to bed with them, commuters gobbled it with their breakfast
cereal. Thank God today would see the end, and they could once more have
the hot South Polar crisis with their cereal.
* * * * *
Seven weeks! He clutched the bulging briefcase with a wearisome horror.
Twenty-two persona-tapes from Central File, all neatly processed and
ready for ECAIAC. End result of the endless chart sifts, emphasis (as
always!) on parietosomatic recession, the slow emergence of minor
constants, the inexorable trend toward Price Factor and then
_verification_, _verification_, to each his own, with all the subtle and
shaded values of the Augment Index brought finally to focus on the
relevance-graph _Carmack_.
Sure, thought Beardsley. A thing of augment-indexing and psych-tapes,
quite without possibility of error. Now in the _old_ days of crime
detection--it might have taken them seven months instead of weeks, not
to mention frustration and leg-work and false-leads and sweat, but--
His mouth pulled down bitterly. _Serological Coördinator. Glorified
file-clerk is more like it. High-salaried errand-boy._
"Here we are, sir!" The pilot's voice jarred him to reality as the
copter berthed.
Beardsley hurried toward the roof entrance. His faded blue suit, a size
too large, flapped about him, and the outmoded felt hat seemed to sink
to the level of his thick-lensed glasses. The guard greeted him, but
suppressed a smile as the cherubic little man flashed his official pass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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