"Hell, yes!" Walton exclaimed. "For once, it's gospel! An enterprising telefax man rigged a private pipe line into my office last night and no one caught it until it was too late. Sure, those aliens are holding out. They don't want us coming in there." Ludwig chewed at his lip. "You have any plans?" "Dozens of them. Want some, cheap?" He laughed, a brittle, unamused laugh. "Seriously, Roy. You ought to go on the air again and smooth this thing over. The people are yelling for war with these Dirnans, and half of us over here at the UN aren't even sure the damned creatures exist. Couldn't you fake it up a little?" "No," Walton said. "There's been enough faking. I'm going on the air with the truth for a change! Better have all your delegates over there listening in, because their ears are in for an opening." As soon as he was rid of Ludwig he called Lee Percy. "That program on the conquest of space is almost ready to go," the public relations man informed him. "Kill it. Have you seen the noon _Citizen_?" "No; been too busy on the new program. Anything big?" Walton chuckled. "Fairly big. The _Citizen_ just yanked the rug out from under everything. We'll probably be at war with Procyon IX by sundown. I want you to buy me air space on every medium for the 1900 spot tonight." "Sure thing. What kind of speech you want us to cook up?" "None at all," Walton said. "I'm going to speak off the cuff for a change. Just buy the time for me, and squeeze the budget for all it's worth." XIII The bright light of the video cameras flooded the room. Percy had done a good job; there was a representative from every network, every telefax, every blare of any sort at all. The media had been corralled. Walton's words would echo round the world. He was seated behind his desk--seated, because he could shape his words more forcefully that way, and also because he was terribly tired. He smiled into the battery of cameras. "Good evening," he said. "I'm Roy Walton, speaking to you from the offices of the Bureau of Population Equalization. I've been director of Popeek for a little less than a week, now, and I'd like to make a report--a progress report, so to speak. "We of Popeek regard ourselves as holding a mandate from you, the people. After all, it was the world-wide referendum last year that enabled the United Nations to put us into business. And I want to tell you how the work of Popeek is going.