Chapter X (3)

    "I know you're burning and I don't blame you, but I want to tell you something. I'm having a rough time myself this week and I'll take just so much from you and no more. You're not the only man in this office with a boom over his head. Remember that."
    Bacon turned on Grabinett. "All right, shyster, you got to one juror in the box, but the fix isn't in yet. I've got another ace to play." He gave Lennox a sour smile. "Your card, Benedict."
    "Don't play it," Lennox growled. "It's a deuce."
    "I can have Sachs thrown off the show for unethical conduct," Bacon persisted. "That corn-ball tried the casting couch routine with an actress named—"
    "Shut up, Ned," Lennox cut in. "It isn't going to do you any good. I won't back the story and neither will she if I tell her not to. Leave her name out of it."
    "Damn you!" Bacon yelled. "What are you doing to me? Cutting my heart out with a dull knife?"
    "He's protecting the Almighty show, that's what he's doing!" Grabinett blurted. "Why don't you let me keep it on the air? What do you want from me? I provided the client. Ain't that enough? Maybe I got no talent, but you don't see me dragging scandal into the studio. Dirty letters and dirty cracks about my director. For Christ's sake, let's all make a buck and live in peace."
    "I'm going to direct my own show," Bacon answered. "And I'm starting the first of the year whether you or my former partner like it or not. You want to make a buck, do you? Then make it on another sucker's brains; because if I don't direct my own show, I want it back. I'm taking it off the air. I'm picking up my marbles and going home."
    "Talk sense, Ned!" Lennox cried.
    "Shut up!" Bacon looked at him with loathing. "If you ever talk to me again I'll cut your guts out. You knew what this meant to me. You know the spot I'm in. 'The People Against—' is cancelled. The old man is through. They've retired his number. This is the one hold I've got on the future and you're stamping on my fingers. For why? What've you got to lose giving me a break?"
    Borden's phone buzzed. He picked it up, murmured for a minute, put it down and said: "The show's cancelled."
    They all turned incredulously.
    "That was Roy Audibon. The network isn't renewing our Sunday night time. I think we'd better table this hassle and get over there right away."
    Tookey Ween was in one of the red leather library chairs and Audibon stood before the illuminated nebula when the three men entered the office. Before the door was closed, a five-way battle was joined, and the melee continued for fifteen minutes. The only way to describe that brawl is to name the records from the network sound library that a soundman would have to use to duplicate it. Spinning two turntables, he would blend 261B—APPLAUSE: 5th CUT; BOOS AND SLIGHT HISSES, with 259A—RIOT CROWD EFFECTS: FRENCH CROWD, LARGE GROUP OF MEN, INCITED TO RIOT BY FRENCH COMMANDS. He might also hammer on the studio walls to get the desk-pounding effect.
    Through all the fury, Audibon remained adamant. The network was not renewing the time. After a quarter of an hour had elapsed, he looked at his watch and took control of the situation.
    "We're discussing a half hour show," he said sharply. "I can't allocate more than the show's time to the discussion time. I have another appointment coming up. Now ... if you've been listening to me with your inner ear, you know the network's position. The nine to nine-thirty Sunday night slot is rated at ten points better than 'Who He?' is doing."
    "Roy...." Borden began.
    Audibon held up his hand. "We're not an entertainment business. We're an institution. We have prestige to maintain. We have our honor to polish. One of my responsibilities is to see to it that every one of our shows reaches and maintains its ultimate rating. Entertainment isn't our goal...." Audibon reached up and rapped the nebula with his knuckles. "This is our goal."
    "Damn it, Roy," Borden exploded. "Level with me. You and I know what's behind this decision. It's the old network-agency feud. You people can't forget that you sold out your radio time to the agencies and lost control of your own business. You're so damned scared of that happening with television that you're cancelling our show ... not because the rating isn't high enough, but because the network doesn't own the package. You want nothing but network packages filling network time."
    Audibon smiled.
    "It's a seller's market today," Borden shouted. "You've got a dozen clients begging for every slot across the board. You can play snotty and get away with it. But the market'll turn. If costs don't kick you out of the saddle, then boredom will. And when that happens you'll come begging to us. You'll come begging and we'll spit in your eye."
    "Incidentally," Audibon murmured. "I'm having this discussion recorded ... for legal purposes." He pointed to a small microphone on the upper shelves of the breakfront.
    "It's a sick show," Ween rumbled suddenly. He got up. "For the record I want my property out of that show and out of that spot. It's a sick show on account of him!" He pointed to Lennox dramatically. "He's the one who's made all the trouble. Him and his poison pen letters. He's been writing the whole show with a poison pen ... and now he's put my property in danger of physical violence. If anything happens to Mig on Sunday, I'll sue!"
    Ween waddled to the door and yanked it open. He glared at Lennox. "Protect your property, will you? You got nothing to protect. Nothing. Now go shove yourself up it." He exited and slammed the door.
    Borden looked at Lennox. "Are you behind this?" he asked icily. "That Knott business you pestered me with yesterday. Is that what he means?"
    "He's getting threats for something Almighty dirty he pulled off," Grabinett shouted.
    "I'm sorry to say that's one of the important reasons for cancelling," Audibon said smoothly. "The rating was only one factor; but when Tooky told me about the difficulties that Jake's been creating ... embarrassing the star, embarrassing the show.... We decided that we couldn't let him embarrass the network."
    Borden arose, gave Lennox one deadly cut-throat stare and marched out, followed by Bacon who was too furious even to look at Lennox. Grabinett sputtered and blinked for a moment, helpless before Audibon's smile and Jake's impassivity.
    "It was that sock in the jaw last night, wasn't it, Roy?" Lennox asked quietly. "You're fighting like Tooky, aren't you?"
    Audibon gazed at the water color and said nothing.
    "Tooky ran off at the mouth because I wouldn't let him chisel a piece out of a hit tune. That was his knife in my back. You're cancelling because you were a louse last night and I called you on it. It isn't the seller's market or the rating or the galaxy or my personal mess. It isn't anything but revenge because I pasted you in the jaw. This is your knife in my back."
    "You Almighty sabotoor!" Grabinett cried. "The deal is off. You hear me? It's off."
    "The show's off, Mel."
    "And I'm taking it out of your hide. If it's the last thing I do, I'm taking it out of your hide, you Christ Almighty Vandal!"
    Grabinett flung out of the office without bothering to slam the door. Audibon sauntered over, closed it gently, then smiled at Lennox.
    "So here you are, Jake."
    "I'll be on my way. Perish the thought that I should hold up your next appointment."
    "You're my next appointment. Sit down. Enjoy." Audibon drifted to the breakfront, opened the lower drawers and revealed a silver-lined bar. "Drink?"
    "Thanks. Brandy, please."
    "Soda?"
    "Straight."
    Audibon filled two large shot-glasses and carried them to Lennox. As he extended one glass, his control slipped, and in a blaze of fury he slashed two ounces of dark brandy into Jake's face. Lennox laughed and stood up.
    "That's all I want, Roy. Thanks for the confession."
    "Look at you," Audibon said in a voice that shook. "Take a panoramic of yourself. Where are you? You've got no show. You've got no partner. Your agency's ready to blacklist you. This network's blacklisting you. You're got no friends. You've got no business. You've got nothing. Nothing!"
    "But I've got something you haven't got, Roy."
    "Never."
    Lennox tapped the water color. "I've got the original of this."
    "Never!"
    Lennox smiled.
    "So you're chasing," Audibon snorted. "Go ahead and chase. You'll never catch up. Not while she remembers me...."
    "Who's chasing?"
    "Then you're bluffing, you—"
    "Who's bluffing?"
    Audibon went white, then red. He turned, walked to the desk and put down the shot-glasses so violently that they clattered.
    "I'm waiting for your offer," Lennox said pleasantly.
    "Get out," Audibon said in a low voice.
    "Tooky offered to trade. Blinky offered to trade. Why not you? Let's hear how contemptible you can get."
    Audibon swung around. "I'll see you in hell first!" He came at Lennox so fast that Lennox only had time enough to grasp his arms above the elbow. They strained at each other for half a minute.
    "I'll see you dead and rotting first," Audibon panted. "I'll run you out of the business. I'll run you off The Rock. If she stays with you, I'll run her off too. I'll see both of you dead first."
    "Do you love her?"
    "I'll kill her!"
    Lennox looked deep into Audibon's drawn face. "I'm seeing you for the first time," he said. "And for the first time I'm beginning to like you."
    Audibon broke out of Jake's grasp and staggered back against the desk. His hand fumbled behind him, and an instant later the office door opened and his secretary entered.
    "Yes, Mr. Audibon?"
    "Lennox is leaving."
    "It's funny what The Rock does," Lennox said. "We ought to be friends." He turned and left.
    "Get me Miss Valentine at Houseways, Inc." Audibon told his secretary. She closed the door behind her. He went to the bar and had a shot. Then he opened his wallet and took out the slip of paper Macro had thrown into his waste basket. The phone buzzed.
    "Gabby? Roy. I want to see you tonight. It's important. No, I can't tell you on the phone. I said it was important. Yes. When? All right, I'll pick you up."
    He dropped the phone, went to the bar and had another shot. Then he wandered to the water color and examined the picture while his fingers mechanically smoothed Macro's slip of paper. Suddenly the dazzling smile reappeared on his lips.
    "Never," he said. "Never."