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and he had arrived ready to outdo anything Corrigan might try adding to what had already been said to
please the ears of the project's financial backers. It did cross his mind as he heard this that Corrigan's
intention might be to throw him off stride and steal all the thunder, but the fact remained that in the
meantime, right off the top of his head, he didn't have a lot to say that was wildly inspirational to counter
it. So when his turn came, he took up the theme that Corrigan had set and concentrated on the new
interfaces and associated hardware that formed his main contribution to the project, the principles
underlying its operation which were fascinating and what it could reasonably be expected to
accomplish.
Meechum grew more relaxed as it became evident that the animosity that he had been waiting to see
surfacing between them was not going to happen, and the rest of the interview went well. But it was
Corrigan who set the tone, while the other two responded. Although he was physically the youngest, his
unswerving dedication to principle and insistence on frankness inspired everyone watching. When they
were getting up after the cameras stopped rolling, Meechum said, "Joe, that makes more sense than
anything I've heard in ages. You carry a wise head on young shoulders."
Pinder, who had come down from the top floor to watch, walked over to Corrigan while the NBC
people were packing away their equipment. He seemed intrigued in a guarded kind of way.
"You handled that . . . interestingly, Joe," he said. "Interestingly, but well. Very commanding and
positive."
"Thanks."
"It was more down to earth than I expected. You, ah, seem to be taking a more sober view of things all
of a sudden."
"I try to be realistic," Corrigan said. "Fooling yourself isn't going to help anyone in the long run."
"There could be some flak from Borth's people. It wasn't the crystal ball that they've been painting to
their clients. This could burst a few balloons."
"Probably better now than later, then," Corrigan said. "Investors are the worst ones to fool."
Pinder looked at him curiously for a second. "Ed tells me that it was your suggestion to put Frank on the
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show as well."
"Sure, why not? Frank and his people have done some neat things. The idea was to make the show
interesting, right?"
Pinder cast an eye around and lowered his voice reflexively. "What I'm saying is, it isn't exactly the best
strategy for the longer term from your point of view with things being the way they are." In other words,
as they both knew, Pinder's term as acting technical chief of Xylog would end soon. Corrigan was not
optimizing his chances of stepping into the slot by sharing the limelight.
"Let's get the ship launched first," Corrigan replied. "When we know it floats, then we can worry about
who'll play captain." Which was what Pinder thought he had been hearing, but he had wanted to be sure.
"You've changed in a big way, Joe," Pinder told him.
Something about Pinder had changed too. He was too wary, feeling his way with probing questions that
seemed somehow out of character. The assertiveness that Corrigan remembered was missing. It was
almost as if Pinder hadn't known Corrigan as long as Corrigan had known him, and was unsure what
kind of reactions to expect. But then, from Corrigan's distorted perspective of things, it had been a long
time forhim . Maybe he didn't remember Pinder as well as he thought.
* * *
And, indeed, Corrigan did seem to have undergone a change in his personality that appeared permanent.
For by the time the party sat down to dinner in the Sheraton, the twelve years of pseudolife that he
remembered himself as having lived were just as clear in his mind as when he had woken up that morning,
while his recollections from yesterday and the days before, although jogged and reawakened to some
degree by the events of the day, were for the most part just as remote.
However, as if to compensate for the loss of detail from his immediate past, he seemed to have retained
the maturity that had developed in the course of living through years that were still ahead of him. This
expressed itself as a charisma that affected everyone present at the table in the same way that it had
enabled him to dominate without domineering the TV interview earlier.
Among those present was a Graham Sylvine, from a department in Washington that prepared appraisals
for scientific-policy reviews. He had been following the Oz project for some time, and appeared in
Pittsburgh without warning late that afternoon. He reminded Corrigan of somebody, but Corrigan was
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