He walked out of the office. This one, he thought, could be broken wide open by a Guard investigation. Sornal would get his freedom, and there might be sizable damages. "Now it would be nice," Stan muttered, "if I could work out something for myself." * * * * * The Guard sergeant was an old-timer--and a methodical man. He listened impassively, then reached under his desk. For a few seconds, his hand was hidden, then he picked up a pen. "Now, let's get this straight. What did you say your name was?" "Graham. Stanley Graham. I--" The sergeant had pulled a form to him. He bent over, writing slowly. "Graham, Stanley. All right. Now, where do you live?" One by one, he went through the maze of blanks, insisting on getting no other information than that called for by the specific space he was working on. Finally, he put down the pen and leaned back. "All right, now how about this other man you mention?" He pulled another form to him. Stan was becoming a trifle impatient. He answered the questions on Sornal, managing to furnish information for most of the blank spaces on the sergeant's form. The man dragged a still different form to him. "All right, now what's this exact complaint?" Stan went through Sornal's history, quoting figures and dates from the Personnel files he had read. The sergeant listened noncommittally, stopping him frequently to get repetitions. At last, he looked up. "Got any documents to back up this story?" Stan coughed impatiently. "No, of course not. I can't pull a file out of Personnel and just carry it up here. It's on file, though. I just got through reading the working file and there's a private file on the guy, too, that would really bust things wide open." The sergeant smiled sourly. "Maybe it would. I suppose they'd pull it right out and hand it over, too." He spun his chair around and fished a book from a shelf behind his desk. "Here." He put the book on the corner of the desk. "Here is the regulation on this sort of situation." He pointed out words, one at a time. It was a long regulation, filled with complex terminology. It forbade seizure of records in any manner not definitely authorized by local statute. The sergeant went through it, getting full value from each word. At last his finger came away from the page. "Those are private records, you're talking about. On this planet, the law protects corporate records to the fullest extent. We'd have to have positive evidence that an incriminating document was in existence. We'd have to define its location and content within fairly narrow limits. Then we'd have to go before a local determinator and request authority for an examination of that document." He slammed the book shut. "And if we failed to find the document in question, or if it wasn't actually incriminating, the injured corporation could slap us with a juicy damage claim." He looked at Stan coldly.