Brent Taber's phone rang.
"Hello, Taber. Halliday here."
"How are you, Halliday."
"Tops, old man. Ragged by the stress of it all, of course, but tops."
Taber waited. Halliday waited. Seeing that he would get no help, he said, "By the way, that little ... misunderstanding we had, the Senator Crane thing, I'm sure you realized that our talk was ... well, the words were put into my mouth. I felt the same way about the oaf as you did. But sometimes, in the line of duty, old man ... well, I know you were reading between my lines all the time."
"I'm pretty good at that."
"I knew we understood each other."
"Is that what you called about?"
"Yes, but I've got a little tip for you. They want to see you upstairs. I happen to know they liked the way things turned out. Just between you and me, the humiliation of Crane made certain high officials pretty happy. I was queried and I gave you all the credit."