They took shelter from a sudden storm of fist-sized hailstones. Then, with ill grace, Grif led the way to one of the larger, central buildings. There were more people here and some of them even glanced at Jason for a minute, before turning back to their business. Jason dragged himself up two flights of stairs before they reached a door marked CO-ORDINATION AND SUPPLY. "Kerk in here?" Jason asked. "Sure," the boy told him. "He's in charge." "Fine. Now you get a nice cold drink, or your lunch, or something, and meet me back here in a couple of hours. I imagine Kerk can do as good a job of looking after me as you can." The boy stood doubtfully for a few seconds, then turned away. Jason wiped off some more sweat and pushed through the door. There were a handful of people in the office beyond. None of them looked up at Jason or asked his business. Everything has a purpose on Pyrrus. If he came there--he must have had a good reason. No one would ever think to ask him what he wanted. Jason, used to the petty officialdom of a thousand worlds, waited for a few moments before he understood. There was only one other door. He shuffled over and opened it. Kerk looked up from a desk strewed about with papers and ledgers. "I was wondering when you would show up," he said. "A lot sooner if you hadn't prevented it," Jason told him as he dropped wearily into a chair. "It finally dawned on me that I could spend the rest of my life in your blood-thirsty nursery school if I didn't do something about it. So here I am." "Ready to return to the 'civilized' worlds, now that you've seen enough of Pyrrus?" "I am not," Jason said. "And I'm getting very tired of everyone telling me to leave. I'm beginning to think that you and the rest of the Pyrrans are trying to hide something." Kerk smiled at the thought. "What could we have to hide? I doubt if any planet has as simple and one-directional an existence as ours." "If that's true, then you certainly wouldn't mind answering a few direct questions about Pyrrus?" Kerk started to protest, then laughed. "Well done. I should know better by now than to argue with you. What do you want to know?" Jason tried to find a comfortable position on the hard chair, then gave up. "What's the population of your planet?" he asked. For a second Kerk hesitated, then said, "Roughly thirty thousand. That is not very much for a planet that has been settled this long, but the reason for that is obvious." "All right, population thirty thousand," Jason said. "Now how about surface control of your planet. I was surprised to find out that this city within its protective wall--the perimeter--is the only one on the planet. Let's not consider the mining camps, since they are obviously just extensions of the city. Would you say then, that you people control more or less of the planet's surface than you did in the past?" * * * * *