The clubs rose and fell even after it was clear there was no reason for it. Their ranks parted and they left their handiwork where it could be admired. It must be hard to find animals in a closed city like this, Danniels thought. It must be quite a treat to find one to beat to death. He sat and waited for them to leave. But he found the Celebration was just beginning. The group was laughing and talking. Now that it was over they wanted to talk about it the rest of the evening. They had created death. He searched out Julie Amprey again. She was looking at what they did. He thought she was sick at first. His lips thinned. Yes, she was sick. Her eyes suddenly met his. Shock washed over her face, and in the next moment she was moving to him. "So," she said coolly, "you found out my little secret. This is where I get my kicks." He nodded, thinking of nothing to say. "Did you ever read them?" she asked breathlessly. "All the old banned books--Poe and Spillane and Proust. The pornography of death. I grew up on them, so you see there's no harm in them. Look at me." "You want to kill?" Danniels asked her. She lit an expensive king-size cigarette. "Yes," she exhaled. "I thought I might join a Pack on the Outside. But, you'll remember, I didn't quite make it. I couldn't even kill a cockroach. I want to, but the damned Broadcasters keep interfering with me." Richard came back, smiling broadly. "Well, Abe, has Miss Amprey been telling you of our plans to ruin the planet?" * * * * * Danniels was incredibly tired. He had been listening and arguing for hours. "You're a scientist," Joel persisted. "Help us." "There are different kinds of scientists," Danniels repeated. "I'm not a nuclear physicist." "Right there." Richard tapped the pink rubber of his pencil against the map of Cook County. "Right there. An Armory no one else knows anything about. Enough H-bombs to wipe out human life on the planet. And rockets to send them in." "The councilman may be lying," Danniels said. "How do you think he should happen to find it and no one else?" "The information was in the city records," Richard said patiently, "but buried and coded so it would take twenty years to locate. Bureaucracy is an insidious evil, Abe." Danniels rubbed his face with his palms. "I'm not even sure if I understand what you mean to do. You want to rocket the H-bombs out almost but not quite beyond Earth's gravitation and explode them so the fallout will be evenly distributed over the surface of the planet. You think it will cause no more than injury and destruction--" "That's all," Joel said sharply. Richard gave an eager nod. They had had to convince themselves of that, he knew. "But why do you want to do anything as desperate as that?"