A year ago, when Hawks had designed the transmitter, part of the first and second floors above it had been ripped out, and the transmitter now towered up nearly to the ceiling along the far wall. Catwalks interlaced the adjoining airspace, and galleries had been built for access to the instruments lining the walls. Dozens of men on Hawks’ staff were still moving about, taking final checks before closing them down for the day. Their shadows on the catwalks, now and then occluding some overhead light, mottled the floor in shifting patterns of darkness.

Hawks stood looking up at the transmitter, his eyes puzzled. Someone abruptly said, “Ed!” and he turned his head in response.

“Hello, Sam.” Sam Latourette, his chief assistant, had walked up quietly. He was a heavy-boned man with loose, papery flesh and dark-circled, sunken eyes. Hawks smiled at him wanly. “The transmitter crew just about finished with their post-mortem, are they?”

“You’ll find the reports on your desk in the morning. There was nothing wrong with the machinery. Nothing anywhere.” Latourette waited for Hawks to show interest. But Hawks only nodded his head. He was leaning one hand against a vertical brace and peering into the receiving stage. Latourette growled, “Ed!”

“Yes, Sam?”

“Stop it. You’re doing too much to yourself.” He again waited for some reaction, but Hawks only smiled into the machine, and Latourette burst out, “Who do you think you’re kidding? How long have I been working with you now? Ten years? Who gave me my first job? Who trained me? You can keep up a front with anybody else, but not with me!” Latourette clenched his fist and squeezed his fingers together emptily. “I know you! But — damn it, Ed, it’s not your fault that thing’s out there! What do you expect — that nobody’ll ever get hurt? What do you want — a perfect world?”

Hawks smiled again in the same way.