"Because such people have to be whittled down to size occasionally. They serve a useful purpose in society but they can't be allowed to get out of hand again." "You win. But you still haven't told me what you want with Mike." "I'm going to take him in hand," she laughed, and dodged into a crowd of tipsy merrymakers as he reached for her. 5 They took a compressed air car to the City Hall, a vision in black marble which towered at the very top of the mountain. Sadie's crumpled safe conduct got them past guard after frowning guard, but they saw several less fortunate citizens being booted down the wide steps. They were escorted into a 100-foot-long chamber. At the end of it, a colorless man in a colorful uniform was almost hidden behind a desk three sizes too large for him. It was Mike, all right, but a Mike considerably changed by his success. That is, he no longer sniggered sadistically; he frowned sadistically. He still gnawed the knuckle of his left forefinger, however, with the same nervous gesture he had used when he had been bodyguard to the brutal boss of Dead Man's Delta. "Well?" he barked when their guards had placed the visitors before his chromium and plastic throne. "Well yourself," the patrolman snapped. "Send your gorillas away." Mike gnawed in indecision, then gave the order. "So you found you couldn't get out of Nirvana and have come in to give yourselves up," said the commandant when they were alone. "That was a dirty trick you played on me yesterday.... Scared the new Incors half to death. If you had come as members of the Space Patrol, I'd have given you every honor. As it is, I'm entitled to concentrate you under the law. Which camp do you pick?" "We'll take the one under the Polar Sea." Sadie lit a cigarette and tossed the match on the inch-thick rug. Mike jumped, then blew up, dropping his pseudo-cultured tone for gangsterese. "Snoopin' again," he shrieked. "I'll have you rubbed out. Youse guys ain't gonna...." "Mustn't say 'youse guys', Mike," Sadie spoke as to a child. "You're commandant now." To Frank's amazement, Mike's fury collapsed like a pricked balloon. "You haven't a thing on me," he mumbled, sinking back on his throne. "I ain't gonna ... I won't talk." "Nobody asked you to," said Frank. "This is just a personal call ... for old time's sake. We were wondering how you are making out with your mother lode." "It ... it's still producing ninety per cent of the U 235 on Venus." Mike stared at them like a sick calf. "Only...." "Only the new engine they've developed up north doesn't need U 235. A hunk of rock will serve it just as well for fuel. Right?" "That's about it." The little man licked dry lips. "I'm ruined; you devils know it damned well." "Going to take it lying down?" jibed Sadie.