gineer Vibart, with a gang of half-taught, self-taught and
untaught helpers, went back to working the engines over, tearing out
all the safety devices that were intended to keep the ship inside
planetary atmosphere, and arranging the lift engines so that they
could be swung into line with the drive engines. There was a lot of
cybernetic and robotic equipment, and astrogational equipment, that
had to be made from scratch. Conn picked a couple of helpers and went
to work on that.

From time to time, he was able to snatch a few minutes to read
teleprint papers or listen to audiovisual newscasts from Storisende.
He was always disappointed. There was much excitement about the new
interplanetary company, but the emphasis was all wrong. People weren't
interested in getting hyperships built, or opening the mines and
factories on Koshchei, or talking about all the things now in short
supply that could be produced there. They were talking about Merlin,
and they were all positive, now, that something found at Force Command
Duplicate had convinced Litchfield Exploration & Salvage that the
giant computer was somewhere off-planet.

Rodney Maxwell flew in from Storisende; he was accompanied by Wade
Lucas, who shook hands cordially with Conn.

"Can you spare us Jerry Rivas for a while?" Rodney Maxwell asked.

"Well, ask Yves Jacquemont; he's vice-president in charge of
operations. As an influential non-office-holding stockholder, I'd
think so. He's only running around helping out here and there."

"We want him to take charge of opening those hospitals you were
telling us about. Wade and I are forming a new company, Mainland
Medical Materials, Ltd. Going to act as broker for L. E. & S. in
getting rid of medical stores. Nobody in the company knows where to
sell that stuff or what we ought to get for it."

Wade Lucas began to talk about how desperately some types of drug and
some varieties of diagnostic equipment were needed. Conn had it on the
tip of his tongue to ask Lucas whether he thought that was a racket,
too. Lucas must have read his mind.

"I really didn't understand how much good this would do," he said. "I
wouldn't have spoken so forcefully against it if I had. I thought it
was nothing but this Merlin thing--"

"Aaagh! Don't talk to me about Merlin!" Conn interrupted. "I have to
talk to Kurt Fawzi and that crowd about Merlin till I'm sick of the
whole subject."

His father shot him a warning glance; Lucas was looking