“Your guy’s made the headlines,” Rogers said as he sat beside Jake.

“And you’re on the front page,” Jake replied. “I didn’t know you wrote for the newspaper.”

Rogers shrugged modestly. “Oh, that was a background piece they asked me to write more’n a year ago. They’ve been sitting on it all this time.”

“It’s a good piece. Clear. Anybody could understand it.”

“The managing editor liked it,” said Rogers. “I think maybe because he didn’t have to pay for it.”

“They didn’t pay you?”

“Nope.”

“Cheap bastards.”

Rogers laughed. “That’s the newspaper business.”

The same ponytailed waiter asked what they wanted to drink. Rogers and Jake both asked for beer. Then Jake saw Glynis enter the restaurant, with Tim Younger right behind her. He waved to them and they came to the booth, hung their coats on pegs on the wall, and sat together across the table from him and Rogers.

Once they all ordered their meals, Jake asked Glynis, “You said Sinclair was pissed off about Tomlinson’s interview?”

She pursed her lips before answering, “He tries very hard to keep his self-control, but he was very upset this morning. Very upset. He slammed the door to his office and was on the phone all morning.”

“Talking to Leeds, most likely,” said Younger.

Rogers said, “I got four calls from local news outfits asking about MHD.”

“I sent them to you,” said Glynis. “They called the professor but I knew he wouldn’t talk to them.”

“So where do we go from here?” Younger asked.

Jake said, “Tomlinson’s going to announce that he’s running against Leeds. It would be great if you two were there when he makes the announcement.”

Younger’s eyes flicked to Rogers and then back to Jake.

Rogers squirmed a little, sitting beside Jake, then said, “That would be kind of tough. I mean, we both work for Sinclair. It would be like a slap in the face for us to show up with Tomlinson.”

“What can he do to you?” Jake asked. “You have tenure, don’t you?”

Rogers nodded slowly, then pointed across the table. “Tim’s an employee.”

Younger huffed. “Let him fire me. Then we’ll see how far he gets with his fat-ass program.”

“Let’s not get emotional about this,” Glynis cautioned.

Jake saw the anger radiating from Younger. Rogers looked embarrassed, Glynis troubled.

“Now look,” Jake said, “the worst thing we could do is snarl up the MHD work. Absolutely the worst. I don’t want to cause a split among you.”

Younger fixed his eyes on Jake. It was like being stared down by a frontier gunslinger. “There’s already a split between him and me.”

“I know you and Sinclair don’t see eye to eye,” Jake said.

Rogers tried to lighten the moment. “Eye to eye? It’s more like tooth and nail.”

“Fang and claw?” Glynis suggested.