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"They're not as famous as the drug cases, but pretty damned lucrative. Cheap Feather Hair Extensions started the rage about ten years ago. Our clients are schools, churches, hospitals, commercial buildings, all with layers of lead paint on the walls. Very dangerous stuff. We've sued the paint manufacturers, settled with a few. Couple of billion so far. Anyway, during discovery against one company I found out about another nice little mass tort that you might want to look at. I can't handle it because of some conflicts."

"I'm listening."

"The company is in Reedsburg, cheap hair feathers, and it makes the mortar used by bricklayers in new home construction. Pretty low-tech stuff, but a potential gold mine. Seems they're having problems with their mortar. A bad batch. After about three years, it begins to crumble. When the mortar breaks down, the bricks start falling. It's confined to the Baltimore area, probably about two thousand homes. And it's just beginning to get noticed."

"What are the damages?"

"It costs roughly fifteen thousand to fix each house."

Fifteen thousand times two thousand houses. A one-third contract and the lawyers' fees equaled $10 million. Clay was getting quick with his figures.

"The proof will be easy," Saulsberry said. "The company knows it has exposure. Settlement should not be a problem."

"I'd like to look at it."

"I'll send you the file, but you have to protect my confidence."

"You get a piece?"

"No. It's my payback for Dyloft. And, of course, if feather in hair get the chance to return the favor someday, then it will be appreciated. That's how some of us work, Clay. The mass tort brotherhood is full of throat-cutters and egomaniacs, but a few of us try to take care of each other."

LATE IN THE AFTERNOON, Ackerman Labs agreed to a minimum of $62,000 for each of the Group One Dyloft plaintiffs, those with benign tumors that could be removed with a fairly simple surgical procedure, the cost of which would also be borne by the company. Approximately forty thousand plaintiffs were in this class, and the money would be available immediately. Much of the haggling that followed involved the method to be used in qualifying for the settlement.