Page 11 of Government Men

CHAPTER 6

  INTERLUDE: THE BIG DATE

  Beauty---the adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.

  - Leon Battista Alberti

  Dr. Barns writhed in pain, this time from application of a red-hot metal poker to his bare back! With Twig, Renson, and Melberg taking turns, the torture seemed endless. It was hard to tell, but by his reckoning it was probably Wednesday, which meant he was due to be eaten and killed (in that order!) the next day. Barns could only hope that he was sorely missed at the office, that his faithful employees had seen through the farce that had been enacted to fool them, and that they were even now all working diligently to find and rescue him.