So when Keg Johnson met Don Channing in the hallway of the courtroom in Buffalo, he was dangling an exact duplicate of the judge's watch—a timepiece no longer a rare collector's item.
He waved the watch before Channing's face.
"Brother," he said with a worried smile, "what have you done!"
"We won," said Channing cheerfully.
"You've lost!" said Keg.
"Lost?"
Keg's eyes followed the Terran Electric lawyer, Mark Kingman, as he left the courtroom.
"He's been trying to put you out of business for a couple of years, Don, without any success. But you just put your own self out of commish. Venus Equilateral is about done for, Channing."
"Meaning?" asked Don, lowering his eyebrows. "Seems to me that you're the one that should worry. As I said, we'll give you your opportunity to buy in."
"Interplanet Transport is finished," agreed Johnson. He did not seem overly worried about the prospect of tossing a triplanetary corporation into the furnace. "So is Venus Equilateral."