"I know you're burning and I don't blame you, but I want to tell you something. I'm having a rough time myself this week and I'll take just so much from you and no more. You're not the only man in this office with a boom over his head. Remember that." Bacon turned on Grabinett. "All right, shyster, you got to one juror in the box, but the fix isn't in yet. I've got another ace to play." He gave Lennox a sour smile. "Your card, Benedict." "Don't play it," Lennox growled. "It's a deuce." "I can have Sachs thrown off the show for unethical conduct," Bacon persisted. "That corn-ball tried the casting couch routine with an actress named--" "Shut up, Ned," Lennox cut in. "It isn't going to do you any good. I won't back the story and neither will she if I tell her not to. Leave her name out of it." "Damn you!" Bacon yelled. "What are you doing to me? Cutting my heart out with a dull knife?" "He's protecting the Almighty show, that's what he's doing!" Grabinett blurted. "Why don't you let me keep it on the air? What do you want from me? I provided the client. Ain't that enough? Maybe I got no talent, but you don't see me dragging scandal into the studio. Dirty letters and dirty cracks about my director. For Christ's sake, let's all make a buck and live in peace." "I'm going to direct my own show," Bacon answered. "And I'm starting the first of the year whether you or my former partner like it or not. You want to make a buck, do you? Then make it on another sucker's brains; because if I don't direct my own show, I want it back. I'm taking it off the air. I'm picking up my marbles and going home." "Talk sense, Ned!" Lennox cried. "Shut up!" Bacon looked at him with loathing. "If you ever talk to me again I'll cut your guts out. You knew what this meant to me. You know the spot I'm in. 'The People Against--' is cancelled. The old man is through. They've retired his number. This is the one hold I've got on the future and you're stamping on my fingers. For why? What've you got to lose giving me a break?" Borden's phone buzzed. He picked it up, murmured for a minute, put it down and said: "The show's cancelled." They all turned incredulously. "That was Roy Audibon. The network isn't renewing our Sunday night time. I think we'd better table this hassle and get over there right away." * * * * *