Forrester felt strangely bored: he had known everything Guest was going to say before he said it. But Ross Trumble’s teeth formed a sudden accidental smile and Forrester realized this was the first Trumble had heard of the possibility of his being elevated. But it didn’t last long. Trumble lapsed again into brooding indifference; he was attending his own private thoughts and clearly was not listening when Guest resumed: “You may not want to believe this but it’s still true that whoever owns the means of production governs our lives. That’s true in Communist Russia and it’s true here.”

“Praise Matthewson-Ward, from whom all blessings flow,” Forrester said.

“If it pleases you to jeer. Our defense contractors pay more than ninety million in taxes into Arizona school districts and state and county and municipal governments. If you people get hairs up your asses and cut off those contracts and those plants have to close down, whose pockets do you think that tax money will have to come out of?”

“I’m sure you intend to make sure the voters get that message.”

“Then you understand me. We’ll have your guts for guitar strings, son.” He said it mildly.

“Possibly,” Forrester conceded. It was his serve and he drew breath and glanced at Trumble. The fat man turned to stare back at him and the hanging wattle shifted under his round chin. Forrester was startled to see the expression behind those buried eyes—they seemed to be pleading—but then the eyes closed up and Trumble didn’t say a word.

Forrester addressed himself to Woody Guest. “Ross is welcome to run against me. But if he does I’ll ask whether his campaign contribution from Matthewson-Ward two years ago influenced his votes on the House Military Appropriations Committee, and I might throw in a few TV speeches explaining how I find it hard to imagine Shattuck Industries giving a fifty-thousand-dollar check to Senator Woodrow Guest’s last campaign without expecting anything in return. Maybe we’ll start calling Ross the Congressman from Matthewson-Ward—has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

Trumble did another strange thing: he threw his head back and uttered his long wheezing laugh. It had a touch of hysteria to it.

Guest was grinning wickedly because this was the kind of fight he enjoyed. Forrester told him, “I can document it down to photocopies of the canceled checks, if you like.”

“And you’re willing to let that hit the fan?”

“Did you think I’d come in here alone like a tame sheep with no ammunition of my own?”

“To tell you the truth I’m not sure what I thought, young friend. For a while there I thought maybe you’d gone around the bend.” Guest chuckled and his eyes glittered when he added, “Do you want to sling verbs around or do you want to do a little horse-trading now, son? Because if it’s the latter I suggest you sit down and quit looming over us.”

When Forrester settled into the chair he turned it slightly to bring Ross Trumble into the scope of his view. Trumble sat with the attaché case on his lap and his eyes on the toes of his brown-and-white wingtips.

Guest said, “Now let’s talk. Or are we dealing with what the kids call nonnegotiable demands?”

Forrester smiled. Woody Guest was an old wheeler-dealer politician with moss growing down his north side and Forrester liked him immensely.

“You told us what you wanted,” Guest continued. “We’ll go on the assumption that’s your asking price but now let’s get down to what you’re willing to settle for.”

“Fine. Do you want to swap horses for a while or do you want to get right down to the truth?”

“The truth usually saves time, son.”

“But it doesn’t leave much room for dickering and that might take some of the fun out of it.”

Guest twinkled back at him. “If you take the fun out of politics what’s the sense of doing it? But let’s get down to it. You’re not going to get party backing for your fight against the powers that be. So what’ll you settle for?”

“Anything I can get,” Forrester said simply. “I’m in this fight to the finish. With or without backing from the machine. Any help I get, that’s just gravy.”

“I think we understand each other, then.”

“I’ll tell you what I’d like to settle for.”

“The moon with parsley.”

Forrester grinned at him. “A little short of that, Senator. I’d like to have a look inside that attaché case on Ross’s lap, for openers.”

Trumble stirred; he had not been listening to them but his ears had picked up the last few words. Guest said, “Why? What’s in it?”

“I expect he’s got Webb Breckenyear’s breakdown of the Phaeton Three appropriation figures.”

“Why the hell would a man lug that around with him to a meeting like this?”

“I understand he never lets it out of his sight.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Trumble growled. “The subject of this meeting was Phaeton. I brought facts in case the discussion turned that way.”

“Then you’re prepared to show them to us?” Forrester asked.

“No. Only to refresh my own memory. Look, Senator, these are private documents and they’re the property of the House Military Appropriations Committee. The Committee’s got a Democratic majority—how would it look if I opened up this file to a couple of Republican Senators?”

Guest said, “Then you won’t let Alan have access to them?”

“Under the proper circumstances and at the proper time. Before the bill comes to a vote the facts will be made public—otherwise how could the House vote on it? But it’s still in the preparation stage now. Nobody in any line of business releases tentative estimates before the details are finalized.”

Forrester said dryly, “Knowing Webb Breckenyear, those figures will be made public about forty-five minutes before it comes to a vote.”

Guest was grinning at him. “I keep telling you, son. That’s the way the game’s played. It’s Webb Breckenyear’s committee, not yours.”

“Webb Breckenyear’s a fossilized reactionary fool and we all know it.”

Guest’s trim shoulders lifted and fell. He said in an idle tone, “He won’t live forever. In the meantime we can put up with him. He’s done a great many fine services for this country in his time. But I might suggest you do look a bit ridiculous carrying that thing around, Ross, if what Alan says is true. It’s hot the crown jewels.”

Trumble grunted. But he took the case off his lap and set it down on the carpet beside his chair. “Just don’t let me forget it when I leave.”

Guest laughed.

Forrester said, “There’s another thing I’ll settle for. I accept the fact that I won’t get Republican backing in the primary. But I’m going to run. Maybe you’ll put up Ross against me and maybe you’ll put up somebody else—it doesn’t matter. The point is, suppose I win the primary?”

Guest saw what Forrester was getting at and he seemed to appreciate it. He started nodding his head before Forrester finished the rest of the statement: “If I win the primary against the machine’s hand-picked candidate I’d like to have your assurances the Republican Party will give me its wholehearted backing in the election campaign this fall.”

“You seem pretty sure of yourself, young friend. Of course that’s the essential blindness of any politician—if he didn’t think he was going to win, he wouldn’t jump into the race in the first place. But you’re dismissing our strength pretty lightly, don’t you think?”

“Not at all. I just think I can lick you.”

They were both smiling and the smiles were not false. Guest said, “You’re talking about going way out on a limb and then asking the Party to come reel you in.”

“Not at all. I’m saying if I can demonstrate the power to attract a majority of registered Republican votes in the primary I want to know the Party will back me afterward.”

“Probably it will. But you’re going to have to deal with Bill Borad’s Senate Republican Campaign Committee. It’s his largesse that’s going to help determine the makeup of the next Congress and maybe Borad won’t be too keen on throwing a lot of money into a campaign for a young maverick Senator who doesn’t want to stand for what the national party stands for.”