I said: "So we report to fifteen million readers that time can't be spared these days—"
He stared at me, only I'd been doing some staring myself and I knew I had to get him to agree to give us a release.
I said: "Have a heart. If anything's big enough to upset the stability of the chief stabilizer, we ought to get a look-in."
That worried him, and I knew it would. Fifteen million people would be more than slightly unnerved to read that the C-S had been in a dither.
"Listen," I said. "What goes on? What were you talking about upstairs?"
He said: "All right. Come down to my office with me. We'll prepare a release."
Only I didn't go out with the rest of them. Because, you see, while I'd been nudging the deputy I'd noticed that all of them had rushed out so fast they'd forgotten to close the office door. It was the first time I'd seen it unlocked and I knew I was going to go through it this time. That was why I'd wheedled that release out of the deputy. I was going to get upstairs into the Prog Building because everything played into my hands. First, the door being left open. Second, the man from the Trib not being there.
Why? Well, don't you see? The opposition papers always paired off. The Ledger and the Record walked together and the Journal and the News and so on. This way I was alone with no one to look for me and wonder what I was up to. I pushed around in the crowd a little as they followed the deputy out, and managed to be the last one in the room. I slipped back behind the door jamb, waited a second and then streaked across to the office door. I went through it like a shot and shut it behind me. When I had my back against it I took a breath and whispered: "Hyperman, here I come!"
I was standing in a small hall that had synthetic walls with those fluorescent paintings on them. It was pretty short, had no doors anywhere, and led toward the foot of a white staircase. The only way I could go was forward, so I went. With that door locked behind me I knew I would be slightly above suspicion—but only slightly, my friends, only slightly. Sooner or later someone was going to ask who I was.