Free The Book of Kills by Ralph McInerny Page B

wise lawyer threw in the sponge, advised his client he did not have a case, putting an end to it. But Leone awaited his client with a different purpose in mind.
    He had not had to read much of what Orion had amassed to see its many weaknesses as the basis for a suit. But early on he had considered making the unfamiliar transition from the legal to the moral. In the time since, the idea had grown in him until he had become a veritable Torquemada in the wings. The material he had would be devastating if made public in a proper way.
    To his credit it must be said that when Leone thought of hisenemy it was Ballast he saw, not anyone in the administration, not any of the good fathers, at least those among the living. In some degree, it was the triumph of a higher justice that he hungered and thirsted for. But that left room for the imagined pleasure of Ballast helpless before his righteous onslaught and exposed once and for all to his employers as incompetent. But not immaterial. Ballast had taken on weight in office. Leone had it on good authority that Ballast took a slimming swim in one of the university’s Olympic pools twice a week. Floated, was more probable. Well, he was soon to sink.
    Something of Leone’s elation dissipated when Orion Plant arrived. What a sullen, disagreeable fellow he was.
    “You going to take the case?”
    “Please sit down. Orion, this is more than a case.”
    “How do you mean?”
    “I mean that we are going to take the high ground. I have sketched out a plan for a moral assault. This is too big for mere legality.”
    “I want to sue the bastards.”
    “That would be inadvisable.”
    “Have you read what I gave you?”
    “Assiduously. It doesn’t hold up legally. In a narrowly legal sense the land is theirs. I am willing to stipulate that. But there is a higher tribunal than the state. I needn’t tell you how public opinion has swung in favor of the oppressed. Indians are regularly used in television commercials designed to wrench the heart. We will invoke the university’s own high proclaimed standards against it.”
    “With what result?”
    Leone paused. He doubted that his own triumph over Ballastwould engage the sympathy of his client. It was important to proceed with care.
    “How would you like being known as the man who brought Christianity to Christendom, who shook the university loose from the clutches of hypocrisy and forced it to acknowledge that you were right as rain and they despicable?”
    “Will there be a settlement?”
    “You mean money?”
    “Of course I mean money. I am broke and without prospects. Do you realize that I have been kicked out of the university?”
    “You have?” This was news indeed, but was it good or bad? “Tell me about it.”
    Orion spoke with the familiar whine of the disappointed academic. He lacked even the elementary skill of avoiding mention of the rules that eminently justified his ejection from graduate school. But Leone considered that the timing of Orion’s separation from the university could not be better. Any fair-minded person, suitably tutored, would see that this was a transparent attempt to get rid of a whistle blower.
    “Orion, you have ignited the student body. Copycat demonstrations will abound. Look at what happened at halftime.”
    “But no settlement.”
    Leone was disappointed. He had thought his own altruism would be contagious. He came down to Orion’s pragmatic level.
    “I think we can be assured of being well compensated for our pains. I mean the pains we inflict on the university.”
    Plant frowned at the universe.
    “Are we agreed?”
    A long, calculating moment passed. “I guess so.”
    “Good.” Leone came around the desk and pumped his client’s hand. “Just leave everything to me.”
    “No. I want to know everything you do before you do it.”
    “Of course.”
    As he led Orion to the door, Leone thought of ways he could disencumber himself of this disagreeable monitor. This campaign had already