"This is going to be a nice, level civilization by the time we get through it," said Kingman. "There'll be no more shopping for food. No more working thirty-five hours a week for your pay so that you can buy the niceties of life. With your household duplicator, you can make everything you need for life, Channing. The Terran Electric label on your duplicator is the label of the New Way of Living."
Channing snorted and crushed his cigarette out with a vicious gesture. "You've been reading your own advertising," he gritted. "Kingman, what do you hope to gain?"
Kingman leaned back in his chair and put both feet on the desk. "I don't mind telling you," he said, gloatingly. "Venus Equilateral is going to have the name of having invented and developed the matter transmitter and matter duplicator. That's fine. It will carry quite an honor, that reputation, up to the time that the big crash comes, when people realize that they're being trapped. Terran Electric, selling duplicators for home use at a song, will emerge as the savior of mankind. All I'm going to gain out of this is security for Mark Kingman and a big, black eye for Venus Equilateral."
Don Channing swore. He stood up. "You fool," he snapped, "you blind, bigoted fool. A little co-operation on your part would save a lot of trouble, but you prefer to let a petty quarrel ruin the entire economic system immediately. We could work this out sensibly, Kingman. Will you help?"
"No. Nothing you can say will convince me that I'm doing wrong."
"But why fire your help? That's what is going to hurt."
"I don't need a production line full of people, Channing, to sit around and watch a duplicator turn out vacuum cleaners, complete in their packing cartons."
Channing took Kingman's under ankle where they were crossed on the edge of the desk. He lifted, and the pudgy attorney went over backwards with a roaring crash, hitting his head on the carpet and spilling over backwards out of the chair onto the floor behind his desk. He arose with a roar of hate, but the door slammed behind Channing before Kingman could become coherent.
Channing returned to Venus Equilateral immediately, a trip that took four days. In touch with events by driver beam, Don heard the news advertising agencies announce the Terran Electric Duplicator of a size suitable for a medium home, complete with a recording attachment and a supply of disks. Channing gritted his teeth and stepped up the drive of the Relay Girl another notch. His first query upon reaching the Station was to Wes Farrell.