n the Chinaware Department, as a relatively innocent
brawl, and spread to the Liquor Department, and then, all of a sudden,
everybody started playing rough. At first, it was suspected that Macy
& Gimbel's had sent a goon gang around to break up Pelton's fall sale,
but when the former concern rallied to the assistance of their
competitor with a force of twenty riflemen, that began to look less
likely, and we're beginning to think that it might be the work of some
of Pelton's political enemies. About ten minutes ago, Major James F.
Slater, of the Literates' Guards, arrived with two hundred of his men,
to protect the Literates on duty at the store. They captured the
entire twelfth floor, where we are, now, with the exception of the
Ladies' Lingerie and Hosiery departments around one of the escalators
to the lower floors; here the gang who started the riot, and who are
now donning white hoods to distinguish themselves from the various
other factions involved, have thrown up barricades of counters and
display tables and are fighting bitterly to keep control of the
escalator head. Ah, here we are!"

The screen lit suddenly, and they were looking, Ray over Yetsko's
shoulder, across the devastated expanse of what had been the Ladies'
Frocks department, toward Lingerie and Hosiery, which seemed to have
been thoroughly looted, then stripped of everything that could be used
to build a barricade.

"... Seems to have been quite a number of heavy 'copters just landed
on the east stage, filled with more goons, probably to re-enforce the
gang back of that barricade. The firing's gotten noticeably heavier--"

* * * * *

Yetsko had turned from the screen, and was pawing in the arms locker.
For a job like this, he'd need firepower. He took the ten-shot clip
from the butt of his pistol and inserted one with a curling
hundred-shot drum at the bottom, and shoved two more like it into the
pockets of his jacket. And now, something to clear the way with. He
took out a three-foot length of weighted fire hose.

Then he saw Ray. That kid was pinning him down, here, while the
captain was probably fighting for his life! But the captain'd told him
to stay with Ray--He dropped the weighted hose.

"What's the matter, Doug?" the boy asked. "Pick it up and let's get
going."

He shook his head. "Can't. The captain told me I had to take care of
you."

The boy opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, and thought f