"Gehenna with what the Government likes!" the old Rebel swore. "If they'd put a few of those ships into commission, they could wipe out these outlaws and a private company wouldn't need an armed ship." "May I use your screen, Kurt?" Conn asked. When Fawzi nodded, he punched out the combination of the operating office at Tenth Army, and finally got his father on. He told him about the ship. "There's talk about tearing the armament out," he added. "Is that so, now? Well, I'll call Lester Dawes before he can get started on it. I think I'll go in to Storisende tomorrow and see the ship for myself. See what I can do about ammunition for those guns, too." "But, Rod," Fawzi protested, joining the conversation, "we don't want to start a war." "No. We want to stay out of one. You don't do that by disarming. We're taking that ship down into the Badlands. Remember?" Rodney Maxwell said. "Ever hear the name Blackie Perales?" Fawzi had. He stopped arguing about armament. Instead, he began worrying about how much the civic clean-up campaign was costing Litchfield. "You think we really need that, Rod?" "Of course we do. You'd be surprised how much labor we're going to need, and how hard up we're going to be for capable supervisors. This thing's a training program, Kurt, and we'll need every man we train on it." "But it's costing like Nifflheim, Rod. We're going to bankrupt the city." "Worse than it is now, you mean? Oh, don't worry, Kurt. As soon as we find Merlin, everything'll be all right." Franz Veltrin came in, shortly after Rodney Maxwell was off the screen. He dropped his audiovisual camera and sound recorder on the table, laid his pistol-belt on top of them and took a drink of brandy, downing it with the audible satisfaction of a thirsty horse at a trough. Then he looked around accusingly. "Somebody's been talking!" he declared. "I've had all the news services on the planet on my screen today; they all want the story about what's happening here. They've heard we know where Merlin is; that Conn Maxwell found out on Terra." "They just put two and two together and threw seven," Conn said. "A _Herald-Guardian_ ship-news reporter interviewed me when I got in, and found out I'd been studying cybernetics and computer theory on Terra. What did you tell them?" "Complete denial. We don't know a thing about Merlin. Naturally, they didn't believe me. A bunch of them are coming out here tomorrow. What are we going to tell them? We'll all have to have the same story." "I," said Judge Ledue, "am not going to be interviewed, I am leaving town till they're gone." "Why don't you steer them onto Wade Lucas?" Conn asked. "If you want anything denied, he'll do it for you." Everybody thought that was a wonderful idea, except Klem Zareff, and he waited until Conn was ready to go and rode up to the landing stage with him. "Conn, I know this Lucas is going to marry your sister," he began, "but how much do you know about him?"