“It could be,” Steve admitted. “They were talking in ways that made me nervous, and when they started testing structural integrity.…” He shook his head. “You weren’t wrong. That went way over the line. I might have been more restrained telling them about it, though.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve thought about that, too. But when I got a look at them going ahead and doing it, I saw red,” Jerry said. He ate some fries. They were top notch. “If you’d talked to them, they might even have listened a little. You aren’t the weird hippie kid, you know? You’re an authority.”

“The only authority they listen to is the highest one,” Steve said. “People like you and me, we’re just tools to them. They use us as long as they need us, then toss us when they don’t anymore. Now they know how to get inside, so they think they can run with the ball themselves.”

“Uh-huh.” Jerry thumped his forehead with the heel of his hand. “If I hadn’t told them how I did it…”

“You were part of the team then. You thought you’d stay on it longer than you did. Can’t say I blame you. I thought the same thing. The next question they’ll want to make sure of is, are you an honest politician?” Steve cocked his head to one side, plainly wondering whether Jerry knew what he was talking about.

As a matter of fact, Jerry did. Anybody who’d read as much Heinlein as he had pretty much had to. “‘An honest politician is one who stays bought,’” he quoted.

Steve smiled. “There you go. You may be the weird hippie kid, but you’ve got an old man’s head on your shoulders.”

“Nah. I’ve read a lot of stuff and I remember too goddamn much of it, that’s all.”

“I think we just said the same thing with different words.”

When the waitress came by again, she said, “You guys sure cleaned that up. Either one of you care for some dessert?”

“Let me have a slice of cherry pie, please,” Jerry said.

“Peach for me,” Steve added.

“Coming up.” She took their plates and hurried off.

When she brought back the slices of pie, she also set the check on the table. “I’ve got it,” Steve said.

“Thanks,” Jerry answered. He wasn’t broke. He was further from broke than he’d ever been in his life, in fact. All the same, he didn’t argue. Steve had made it clear he’d been a long way from broke for a long time. Buying lunch at a coffee shop wouldn’t mean he’d miss paying the rent.