"Oh, be your age, Frank! Dictatorships are out of date. They won't work; never have worked for more than a few years. You won't catch up-to-the-minute Big Shots betting on a horse that Hitler, and Mussolini, Stalin, and all the others rode to death." "Then what?" He was beginning to be angry, as he often did when Sadie disagreed with him. "They'll plan to use the invention as a lever which will allow them to return to positions of power in United Stars. Think what that would mean to them in terms of graft and legalized robbery. They'd be sitting pretty in the middle of everything once more, instead of being tucked away on the fringe of civilization." "The United Stars would never agree to that; it would mean war." "I doubt it." The girl picked the strawberry out of her traskette glass and chewed it thoughtfully. "Both Wildoatia and United Stars know that another war is impossible. Say that on Monday the Big Shots wrecked every city on Earth and Mars with a new type of bomb. A month from Monday our V-60's would hit Wildoatia and wipe it off the map. No bomb of any kind could destroy our V-60 dumps without setting off a chain reaction...." "... which would reduce Earth to a cinder," he snapped. "A chain reaction wouldn't stop there. It might turn the whole solar system into a Nova ... just one big ball of atomic fire. Nuh uh, my friend! The Big Shots know they couldn't escape a chain reaction ... and they like to live as well as anybody else does." "What's your solution, Sadie?" Frank stared at her with a sort of wonder. She looked so much like a little girl, despite the gown which she might about as well not have been wearing. "We've got to beat the Big Shots at their own game; we've got to invent a substitute for war." "A substitute for _war_!" His respect turned to disgust. "You're nuts; there ain't no such animal." "Sez you!" As always, when under the strain of great excitement, she dropped into the half-gangster, half-western argot which she had picked up while fighting in the Underground. "Listen, wise guy. I'll bet you five grand I can cook up a substitute the Big Shots will fall for like a ton of bricks." "Some sort of game, I suppose," he jeered as he picked up the check. "Game, my eye!" Seeing his bewilderment, she leaned forward and nibbled his ear. "I'll give you just one tip. If an atom bomb explodes, where's the only place it can't do any serious damage?" "Why ... why. Holy cats. Maybe you've got something there!" "I've got everything." She rose lithely as if to prove it. "Come on, let's hit the hay; we're going into Wildoatia as Incors tomorrow." "But the Space Patrol has the authority to inspect every Big Shot mine and factory. Why should we go incognito?" "Because I like to stay alive, chump," she answered, slipping her hand under his arm. 3