"I travel, Eric. And I know. Security forces don't suppress anything in the south these days. Because they're made up of Yardsticks now; that's right, Yardsticks exclusively. And in a few years that's the way it will be up here. Did you ever hear about the Chicagee riots?" "You mean last year, when the Yardsticks tried to take over the synthetic plants at the Stockyards?" "Tried? They _succeeded_. The workers ousted management. Over fifty thousand were killed in the revolution--oh, don't look so shocked, that's the right word for it!--but the Yardsticks won out in the end." "But the telescreen showed--" "Damn the telescreen! I know because I happened to be there when it happened. And if _you_ had been there, you and a few million other ostriches who sit with your heads buried in telescreens, maybe we could have stopped them." "I don't believe it. I can't!" "All right. Think back. That was last year. And since the first of this year, what's happened to the standard size meat-ration?" "They cut it in half," Eric admitted. "But that's because of Ag shortages, according to the telescreen reports--" He stood up, gulping. "Look here, I'm not going to listen to any more of this kind of talk. By rights, I ought to turn your name in." "Go ahead." Wolzek waved his hand. "It's happened before. I was reported when I blasted the Yardsticks who shot my father down when he tried to land his jet in a southern field. I was reported when they killed Annette." "Annette?" "You remember that name, don't you, Eric? Your first girl, wasn't she? Well, I'm the guy who married her. Yes, and I'm the guy who talked her into having a baby without the benefit of Leff shots. Sure, it's illegal, and only a few of us ever try it any more, but we both agreed that we wanted it that way. A real, life-sized, normal baby. Or abnormal, according to the Yardsticks and the stupid government. "It was a dirty scum of a government doctor who let her die on the table when he discovered the child weighed seven pounds. That's when I really woke up, Eric. That's when I knew there was going to be only one decision to make in the future--kill or be killed." "Annette. She died, you say?" Wolzek moved over and put his hand on Eric's shoulder. "You never married, did you, Eric? I think I know why. It's because you felt the way I did about it. You wanted a regular kid, not a Yardstick. Only you didn't quite have the guts to try and beat the law. Well, you'll need guts now, because it's getting to the point where the law can't protect you any more. The government is made up of old men, and they're afraid to take action. In a few years they'll be pushed out of office all over the world. We'll have Yardstick government then, all the way, and Yardstick law. And that means they'll cut us down to size." "But what can you--we--do about it?"