rced a laugh. "It isn't as if my
bucks depended on the number of tenants in the building. Government
subsidizes this place. I'm sure of a job as long as I live."

"As long as you live." Wolzek stared at him in a way he didn't like.
"And just how long do you figure that to be?"

"I'm only twenty-six," Eric answered. "According to statistics, that
gives me maybe another sixty years."

"Statistics!" Wolzek said it like a dirty word. "Your life-expectancy
isn't determined by statistics any more. I say you don't have sixty
months left. Perhaps not even sixty days."

"What are you trying to hand me?"

"The truth. And don't go looking for a silver platter underneath it,
either."

"But I mind my own business. I don't hurt anybody. Why should I be in
any danger?"

"Why does a government subsidy support one rental manager to sit here
in this building every day--but ten guards to patrol it every night?"

Eric opened his mouth wide before shaping it for speech. "Who told you
that?"

"Like I said, I know the setup." Wolzek crossed his legs, but he
didn't lean back. "And in case you haven't guessed it, this is a
business call, not a social one."

Eric sighed. "Might have figured," he said. "You're a Naturalist,
aren't you?"

"Of course I am. We all are."

"Not I."

"Oh yes--whether you like it or not, you're a Naturalist, too. As far
as the Yardsticks are concerned, everyone over three feet high is a
Naturalist. An enemy. Someone to be hated, and destroyed."

"Think I'd believe that? Sure, I know they don't like us, and why
should they? We eat twice as much, take up twice the space, and I
guess when we were kids we gave a lot of them a hard time. Besides,
outside of a few exceptions like ourselves, all the younger generation
are Yardsticks, with more coming every year. The older people hold
the key positions and the power. Of course there's a lot of friction
and resentment. But you know all that."

"Certainly." Wolzek nodded. "All that and more. Much more. I know that
up until a few years ago, no Yardstick held any public office or
government position. Now they're starting to move in, particularly in
Europasia. But there's so many of them now--adults, in their early
twenties--that the pressure is building up. They're impatient, getting
out of hand. They won't wait until the old folks die off. They want
control now. And if they ever manage to get it, we're finished for
good."

"Impossible!" Eric said.

"Imposs