not. Don’t think it.”
“I do think it,” said Dors stubbornly, “and I can find evidence for it.”
Elar said, “I don’t know how to say this without offense, Dr. Venabili, but if a person is ingenious enough and intent enough on proving something, he or she can find all the evidence he or she wants—or, at least, something he or she believes is evidence.”
“Do you think I’m paranoid?”
“I think that in your concern for the Maestro—something in which I’m with you all the way—you’re, shall we say, overheated.”
Dors paused and considered Elar’s statement. “At least you’re right that a person with sufficient ingenuity can find evidence anywhere. I can build a case against you, for instance.”
Elar’s eyes widened as he stared at her in total astonishment. “Against me? I would like to hear what case you can possibly have against me.”
“Very well. You shall. The birthday party was your idea, wasn’t it?”
Elar said, “I thought of it, yes, but I’m sure others did, too. With the Maestro moaning about his advancing years, it seemed a natural way of cheering him up.”
“I’m sure others may have thought of it, but it was you who actually pressed the issue and got my daughter- in-law fired up about it. She took over the details and you persuaded her that it was possible to put together a really large celebration. Isn’t that so?”
“I don’t know if I had any influence on her, but even if I did, what’s wrong with that?”
“In itself, nothing, but in setting up so large and widespread and prolonged a celebration, were we not advertising to the rather unstable and suspicious men of the junta that Hari was too popular and might be a danger to them?”
“No one could possibly believe such a thing was in my mind.”
Dors said, “I am merely pointing out the possibility. —In planning the birthday celebration, you insisted that the central offices be cleared out—”
“Temporarily. For obvious reasons.”
“—and insisted that they remain totally unoccupied for a while. No work was done—except by Yugo Amaryl —during that time.”
“I didn’t think it would hurt if the Maestro had some rest in advance of the party. Surely you can’t complain about that.”
“But it meant that you could consult with other people in the empty offices and do so in total privacy. The offices are, of course, well shielded.”
“I did consult there—with your daughter-in-law, with caterers, suppliers, and other tradesmen. It was absolutely necessary, wouldn’t you say?”
“And if one of those you consulted with was a member of the junta?”
Elar looked as though Dors had hit him. “I resent that, Dr. Venabili. What do you take me for?”
Dors did not answer directly. She said, “You went on to talk to Dr. Seldon about his forthcoming meeting with the General and urged him—rather pressingly—to let you take his place and run the risks that might follow. The result was, of course, that Dr. Seldon insisted rather vehemently on seeing the General himself, which one can argue was precisely what you wanted him to do.”
Elar emitted a short nervous laugh. “With all due respect, this
Dors pressed on. “And then, after the party, it was you, wasn’t it, who was the first to suggest that a group of us go to the Dome’s Edge Hotel?”
“Yes and I remember you saying it was a good idea.”
“Might it not have been suggested in order to make the junta uneasy, as yet another example of Hari’s popularity? And might it not have been arranged to tempt me into invading the Palace grounds?”
“Could I have stopped you?” said Elar, his incredulity giving way to anger. “You had made up your own mind about that.”
Dors paid no attention. “And, of course, you hoped that by entering the Palace grounds I might make sufficient trouble to turn the junta even further against Hari.”
“But why, Dr. Venabili? Why would I be doing this?”
“One might say it was to get rid of Dr. Seldon and to succeed him as director of the Project.”
“How can you possibly think this of me? I can’t believe you are serious. You’re just doing what you said you would at the start of this exercise—just showing me what can be done by an ingenious mind intent on finding so- called evidence.”
“Let’s turn to something else. I said that you were in a position to use the empty rooms for private conversations and that you may have been there with a member of the junta.”
“That is not even worth a denial.”
“But you were overheard. A little girl wandered into the room, curled up in a chair out of sight, and overheard your conversation.”
Elar frowned. “What did she hear?”
“She reported that two men were talking about death. She was only a child and could not repeat anything in detail, but two words did impress her and they were ‘lemonade death.’ ”
“Now you seem to be changing from fantasy to—if you’ll excuse me—madness. What can ‘lemonade death’ mean and what would it have to do with me?”
“My first thought was to take it literally. The girl in question is very fond of lemonade and there was a good deal of it at the party, but no one had poisoned it.”
“Thanks for granting sanity that much.”
“Then I realized the girl had heard something else, which her imperfect command of the language and her love of the beverage had perverted into ‘lemonade.’ ”
“And have you invented a distortion?” Elar snorted.
“It did seem to me for a while that what she might have heard was ‘laymen-aided death.’ ”
“What does that mean?”
“An assassination carried through by laymen—by nonmathematicians.”
Dors stopped and frowned. Her hand clutched her chest.
Elar said with sudden concern, “Is something wrong, Dr. Venabili?”
“No,” said Dors, seeming to shake herself.
For a few moments she said nothing further and Elar cleared his throat. There was no sign of amusement on his face any longer, as he said, “Your comments, Dr. Venabili, are growing steadily more ridiculous and—well, I don’t care if I do offend you, but I have grown tired of them. Shall we put an end to this?”
“We are almost at an end, Dr. Elar. Layman-aided may indeed be ridiculous, as you say. I had decided that in my own mind, too. —You are, in part, responsible for the development of the Electro-Clarifier, aren’t you?”
Elar seemed to stand straighter as he said with a touch of pride, “Entirely responsible.”
“Surely not entirely. I understand it was designed by Cinda Monay.”
“A designer. She followed my instructions.”
“A
With suppressed violence Elar said, “I don’t think I want to hear that phrase again. Once more, shall we put an end to this?”
Dors forged on, as if she hadn’t heard his request. “Though you give her no credit now, you gave Cinda credit to her face—to keep her working eagerly, I suppose. She said you gave her credit and she was very grateful because of it. She said you even called the device by her name and yours, though that’s not the official name.”
“Of course not. It’s the Electro-Clarifier.”
“And she said she was designing improvements, intensifiers, and so on—and that you had the prototype of an advanced version of the new device for testing.”
“What has all this to do with anything?”
“Since Dr. Seldon and Dr. Amaryl have been working with the Electro-Clarifier, both have in some ways deteriorated. Yugo, who works with it more, has also suffered more.”
