to look disappointed, flattered and modestall at the same time. "Well," he went on after a second, "anything Ican do--"
"Burris thought you might have some answers," Boyd said.
"Burris is getting optimistic in his old age," Malone said. "I don'teven have many questions."
Boyd nodded. "Well," he said, "you know this California thing?"
"Sure I do," Malone said. "You're looking into the resignation outthere, aren't you?"
"Senator Burley," Boyd said. "That's right. But Senator Burley'sresignation isn't all of it, by any means."
"It isn't?" Malone said, trying to sound interested.
"Not at all," Boyd said. "It goes a lot deeper than it looks on thesurface. In the past year, Ken, five senators have announced theirresignations from the Senate of the United States. It isn't exactly arecord--"
"It sounds like a record," Malone said.
"Well," Boyd said, "there was 1860 and the Civil War, when a whole lotof senators and representatives resigned all at once."
"Oh," Malone said. "But there isn't any Civil War going on now. Atleast," he added, "I haven't heard of any."
"That's what makes it so funny," Boyd said. "Of course, Senator Burleysaid it was ill health, and so did two others, while Senator Davidsonsaid it was old age."
"Well," Malone said, "people do get old. And sick."
"Sure," Boyd said. "The only trouble is--" He paused. "Ken," he said,"do you mind if I smoke? I mean, do you mind the smell of cigars?"
"Mind?" Malone said. "Not at all. Not at all." He blinked. "Besides,"he added, "maybe this one won't smell like a cigar."
"Well, the last one did," Boyd said. He took a cigarette out of a packin his pocket, and lit it. He sniffed. "You know," he said, "You'reright. This one doesn't."
"I told you," Malone said. "Must have been a bad cigarette. Spoiled orsomething."
"I guess so," Boyd said vaguely. "But about these retirements--the FBIwanted me to look into it because of Burley's being mixed up with thespace program scandal last year. Remember?
"Vaguely," Malone said. "I was busy last year."
"Sure you were," Boyd said. "We were both busy getting famous andwell-known."
Malone grinned. "Go on with the story," he said.
Boyd puffed at his cigarette. "Anyhow, we couldn't find anythingreally wrong," he said. "Three senators retiring because of illhealth, one because of old age. And Farnsworth, the youngest. He had anervous breakdown."
"I didn't hear about it," Malone said.
Boyd shrugged. "We hushed it up," he said. "But Farnsworth's gotdelusions of persecution. He apparently thinks somebody's out to gethim. As a matter of fact, he thinks _everybody's_ out to get him."
"Now that," Malone said, "sounds familiar."
Boyd leaned back a little more in his chair. "Here's the funny thing,though," he said. "The others all act as if they're suspicious ofeverybody who talks to them. Not anything obvious, you understand.Just--worried. Apprehensive. Always looking at you out of the cornersof their eyes. That kind of thing."
Malone thought of Senator Lefferts, who was also suffering fromdelusions of persecution--delusions that had real evidence to backthem up. "It does sound funny," he said cautiously.
"Well, I reported everything to Burris," Boyd went on. "And he saidyou were working on something similar, and we might as well pool ourresources."
"Here we go again," Malone said. He took a deep breath, filling hisnostrils with what remained of the cigar odor in the room, and feltmore peaceful. Quickly, he told Boyd about what had been happening inCongress. "It seems pretty obvious," he finished, "that there is somekind of a tie-up between the two cases."
"Maybe it's obvious," Boyd said, "But it is just a little bit odd. Funand games. You know, Ken, Burris was right."
"How?" Malone said.
"He said everything was all mixed up," Boyd went on. "He told me thecountry was going to Rome in a handbasket, or something like that."
Wondering vaguely if Burris had really been predicting mass religiousconversions, Malone nodded silently.
"And he's right," Boyd said. "Look at the newspapers. Everything'sscrewy lately."
"Everything always is screwy," Malone said.
"Not like now," Boyd said. "So many big-shot gangsters have beenkilled lately we might as well bring back Prohibition. And the laborunions are so busy with internal battles that they haven't had time togo on strike for over a year."
"Is that bad?" Malone said.
Boyd shrugged. "God knows," he said. "But it's sure confusing as allhell."
"And now," Malone said, "with all that going on--"
"The Congress of the United States decides to go off its collectiverocker," Boyd finished. "Exactly." He stared down at his cigarette fora minute with a morose and pensive expression on his face. He looked,Malone thought, like Henry VIII trying to decide what to do about allthese here wives.
Then he looked up at Malone. "Ken," he said in a strained voice,"there seem to be a lot of nutty cases lately."
Malone considered. "No," he said at last. "It's just that when a nuttyone comes along, we get it."
"That's what I mean," Boyd said. "I wonder why that is."
Malone shrugged. "It takes a thief to catch a thief," he said.
"But these aren't thieves," Boyd said. "I mean--they're just nutty."He paused. "Oh," he said.
"And, two thieves are better than one," Malone said.
"Anyhow," Boyd said with a small, gusty sigh, "it's company."
"Sure," Malone said.
Boyd looked for an ashtray, failed again to find one, and walked overto flip a second cigarette out onto Washington. He came back to hischair, sat down, and said: "What's our next step, Ken?"
Malone considered carefully. "First," he said finally, "we'll startassuming something. We'll start assuming that there is some kind oforganization behind all this--behind all the senators' resignationsand everything like that."
"It sounds like a big assumption," Boyd said.
Malone shook his head. "It isn't really," he said. "After all, wecan't figure it's the work of one person: it's too widespread forthat. And it's silly to assume that everything's accidental."
"All right," Boyd said equably. "It's an organization."
"Trying to subvert the United States," Malone went on. "Reducingeverything to chaos. And that brings in everything else, Tom. Thatbrings in the unions and the gang wars and everything."
Boyd blinked. "How?" he said.
"Obvious," Malone said. "Strife brought on by internalconfusion--that's what's going on all over. It's the same pattern. Andif we assume an organization trying to jam up the United States, iteven makes sense." He leaned back and beamed.
"Sure it makes sense," Boyd said. "But who's the organization?"
Malone shrugged.
"If I were doing the picking," Boyd said, "I'd pick the Russians. Orthe Chinese. Or both. Probably both."
"It's a possibility," Malone said. "Anyhow, if it's sabotage, who elsewould be interested in sabotaging the United States? There's someRussian or Chinese organization fouling up Congress, and the unions,and the gangs. Come to think of it, why the gangs? It seems to me thatif you left the professional gangsters strong, it would do even moreto foul things up."
"Who knows?" Boyd said. "Maybe they're trying to get rid of Americangangsters so they can import some of their own."
"That doesn't make any sense," Malone said, "but I'll think about it.In the meantime, we have one more interesting question."
"We do?" Boyd said.
"Sure we do," Malone said. "The question is: How?"
Boyd said: "Hm-m-m." Then there was silence for a little while.
"How are the saboteurs doing all this?" Malone said. "It just doesn'tseem very probable that _all_ the technicians in the Senate OfficeBuilding, for instance, are spies. It makes even less sense that thelabor unions are composed mostly of spies. Or, for that