ut and electrocute me."

"I don't want to fight you," Malone said wearily. "So you've got the
stuff recorded. That's your business."

"My business?"

"Sure," Malone said cheerfully, "as long as you don't try to use it."

"Now, Malone--" Lynch began.

"This is touchy stuff," Malone said. "We're going to have to take a lot
of care in handling it. And I don't want you throwing raids all over the
place and mixing everything up."

"Malone, I--"

"Eventually," Malone said, "I'm going to need your help with these kids.
But for right now, I want to handle this my way, without any
interference."

"I wouldn't think of--"

"You wanted information," Malone said. "Fine. That's all right with me.
You got the information, and that's O.K., too. But if you try to use it
before I say the word, I'll ... I'll talk to good old Uncle John Henry
Fernack. And he'll help me out: he'll give you a refresher course on
_How To Be A Beat Cop_. In Kew Gardens. It's nice and lonely out there
now, Lynch. You'd love it."

"Malone," Lynch said tiredly.

"Don't give me any arguments," Malone said. "I don't want any
arguments."

"I won't argue with you, Malone," Lynch said. "I've been trying to tell
you something."

Malone stepped away from the desk. "All right," he said. "Go ahead."

* * * * *

Lynch took a deep breath. "Malone, I'm not trying to queer your pitch,"
he said. "If I were going to pull a raid, here's what I'd have to do:
get my own cops together, then call the precinct that covers that old
warehouse. We don't cover the warehouse from here, Malone, and we'd need
the responsible precinct's aid in anything we did down there."

Malone said: "Well, all I--"

"Not only that," Lynch said. "I'd have to call Safe and Loft, and get
them in on it. A warehouse raid would probably be their baby first of
all. That means this precinct, the warehouse precinct, and the Safe and
Loft Squad, all together to raid that warehouse. Malone, would I pull a
raid at this stage, if I had to go through all that, without knowing
what I was going to find down there?"

"Oh," Malone said.

"If those kids can just appear and disappear at will," Lynch said, "I'm
not going to pull a raid on them, and end up looking like a fool, until
I've got some way of making sure they're there when the raid goes
through."

Malone coughed gently. "O.K.," he said at last. "Sorry."

"There's only one thing I want," Lynch said. "I want