The Trouble with Telstar

Book Excerpt: ...to. Isn't Fred Stone going to run your errand for you?""I'm running Fred Stone's errands, isn't that what you really think, Sylvia?" I asked her. Sniff! "He can see you at eleven." Click. Paul Cleary had his coat off and was poring over a large black-on-white schematic when I was shown in by sniffin' Sylvia. "Hello, Mike," he growled. "Here, Sylvia. Mike's not supposed to see this stuff. Drag it away, honey. Drag it away!"With quick motions she rolled up the drawings, snapped a rubber binder around them and went out. Cleary wagged his hairy old paw to the chair beside his desk."So you've been thinking?" he asked, reaching for his curve-stemmed pipe."How do you know?""My spies tell me you haven't been out in the lab since the other day. Certainly you were doing something besides sulk in your office.""Yes.""Well, what did you come up with? Why did that switching operation fail out in...