'Now it's the steps leading up to the Rotunda,' added Logan with the next slide.
'He's on the Hill,' interjected Mandel.
'I know him!' said Sundstrom, the fingers of his right hand pressing into his temples. 'I know the face, and there's a story behind that face but I don't know what it is.'
'Not the story I'm about to tell you, sir.'
'All right, Milos.' Margaret Lowell's voice was adamant. 'Enough's enough. Who the hell is he?'
'His name is Kendrick. Evan Kendrick. He's the representative from the ninth district of Colorado.'
'A congressman?' exclaimed Jacob Mandel, as the photograph of Kendrick on the Capitol's steps remained on the screen. 'I've never heard of him, and I thought I knew just about everyone up there. By name, of course, not personally.'
'He's relatively new, sir, and his election was not widely covered. He ran on the President's party line because in that district the opposition is nonexistent—winning the primary is tantamount to election. I mention this because the congressman does not appear to be philosophically in tune with numerous White House policies. He avoided national issues during the primary.'
'Are you suggesting,' Gideon Logan asked, 'he has true independence and integrity?'
'In a very quiet way, yes.'
'Quiet and new and with a somewhat less than imposing constituency,' said Sundstrom. 'From that point of view your anonymity's safe. Too safe, perhaps. There's nothing more dismissible in political prime time than a newly elected, unheard-of congressman from an unknown district. Denver's in the first, Boulder the second and the Springs in the fifth. Where's the ninth?'
'Southwest of Telluride, near the Utah border,' replied Jacob Mandel, shrugging as if apologizing for his knowledge. 'There were some mining stocks, very speculative, that we looked into several years ago. But that man on the screen is not the congressman we met and who tried rather desperately to persuade us to underwrite the issues.'
'Did you underwrite them, sir?' asked Varak.
'No, we did not,' answered Mandel. 'Frankly, the speculation went beyond the calculated risks of venture capital.'
'What you call in America a possible “scam”?'
'We had no proof, Milos. We just backed away.'
'But the congressional representative from that district did his best to enlist your support?'
'Indeed he did.'
'That is why Evan Kendrick is now the congressman, sir.'
'Oh?'
'Eric,' interrupted Gideon Logan, shifting his large head to look at the academic inventor of space technology. 'You said you knew him, at least his face.'
'I do, I'm sure I do. Now that Varak's told us who he is, I think I met him at one of those interminable cocktail parties in Washington or Georgetown, and I distinctly remember that someone said there was quite a story behind him… That was it. I never heard the story; it was simply a statement.'
'But Milos said that whatever story you had in mind wasn't the one he was going to tell us,' said Margaret Lowell. 'Isn't that right?' she added, looking at Varak.
'Yes, madame. The remark made to Professor Sundstrom undoubtedly concerned the nature of Kendrick's election. He literally bought it in anger, burying his opponent under an avalanche of local advertising and a series of expensive rallies that were more public circuses than political assemblies. It was said that when the incumbent complained that the election laws were being violated, Kendrick confronted him with his attorneys—not to discuss the campaign but, instead, his opponent's performance in office. The complaints instantly stopped and Kendrick won handily.'
'One could say he puts his money where his indignation is,' remarked Winters quietly. 'However, you have a far more fascinating bit of information for us, Mr. Varak, and since I've heard it, I'll repeat what I said before. It's extraordinary. Please go on.'
'Yes, sir.' The Czech pressed the remote control and with a
