CHAPTER III“Now, just a minute, Alan,” Bennett Keifer said later. “Before you go off half-c****d like that—”
“Eugene made some accusations, then died,” Alan insisted, “before he could show me the proof.”
“We’re all grownups here, Alan,” Keifer said easily. There was no mistaking his tone. He would assume Alan was a grownup. “You’re twenty-five,” he went on. “One day soon you’ll take over the Federation movement, so you can’t afford to be impetuous. You tried to find that letter, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Alan admitted. “It wasn’t there.”
“Of course it wasn’t. It never existed. Alan, listen to me. Talbrick was an old man. Our viewpoints differed diametrically. He couldn’t reconcile himself with the fact that your father agreed with me.”
“But—”
“But that isn’t important. This is. Someone, so
