Brant lifted Lisa to her feet and rose from the chair. His boots clicked against the green metal floor as he pushed his way through the crowd of merry makers toward a transparent glass bubble which was suspended from the ceiling by a silver chain. He pushed back the dispenser on the bubble and a cylindrical pill rolled out onto his hand. He carried it back to where Lisa sat swaying to the music which continued to fill the room. "Here child. This will really give you a dream," he said as he handed her the pill. Brant watched Lisa sink into the half coma that the sensation pills produced. He leaned over and kissed her shoulder. Then he straightened and moved across the room to where Gil Patton stood in front of a glass wall which afforded a panoramic view of the entire city. "Good party, Gil," Brant said to his host. "I hoped it wouldn't be sad. Anything clicking?" Brant pointed to Lisa. "She is. Been trying your new pebbles." "How's the Assistant Director of Sensory Communications doing these days?" Gil asked as they walked across the room to a plastic table on which rested bowls of red, green, and yellow liquors. "Right and light. We've got a new show scheduled to go on the Distributor Cable in about another month. Runs twenty minutes two times a day. Morning and night. A serial about the Council." Gil turned to Brant with a drink in his hand. "Thought nobody knew anything about the Council except that they run Dreamtown." "No one does know very much about them. No one's ever seen them actually. But we've heard rumors that the Rebels have been influencing some of our citizens and word has come down to build this show for morale purposes." "Why, that's crazy. Who'd want to go back to the way it was before? Those Rebels are out of their heads!" Brant smiled. "Right man. But there are still some of them operating in the less populated areas. The Watchers brought in seven men and a woman last week from somewhere south of here. They found books in their hideout and even some paintings that one of the Rebels claimed to have done by hand." Gil whistled through his teeth. "You'd think they'd get with it and come back here. What are they getting out of this rebellion?" Brant reached over and touched Gil's arm. "Just between us, friend. Before they psychwashed these Rebels they found out that they had been plotting with other Rebel groups to overthrow Dreamtown. The Council has every available Watcher on their trail." "Couldn't ever happen, Brant. They don't have anything to fight with. Books. Pictures. They'll wise up and come over to us. Wait and see." Brant shrugged. "They forget we're living in 2054 and the Big War's been over for nearly seventy years. They still think the old way was pretty good. But Gil, boy, we're getting serious. Let's stack it! The Watchers will get them. It's not our problem." * * * * *