Karl Haslam. Karl would know best how to deal with
her, how to bring her back to reason. He reached toward the intercom,
then dropped his hand in despair. Karl was in the hospital, with Faure
and Hudson, shivering with the cold of Blue Martian fever. But he had to
get her away.

He pressed the intercom dial. "Dr. Wong speaking. Miss Hachovnik is ill
and is being sent home. Please send an aircab for her at once."

He helped Leah to her feet, and spoke pleadingly.

"Promise you'll be good, Leah?"

The fury in her eyes nearly knocked him down. Without a word, without a
gesture, she walked out.

* * * * *

David felt as though he'd been put through a wringer as he followed
Officer Magnun into the Leader's suite at State House. Several nights of
sleeplessness, the worries of planning for a refuge, and the scene with
Leah had left him limp and spiritless. The girl was a danger, he knew,
but she was only one of many.

He nodded at Dr. Lanza, who was busy reading reports from BureauMed, and
saluted Leader Marley, who was talking with a watchguard.

Marley looked up briefly. "Sit down, Wong."

David folded himself into a chair, grateful for a few moments in which
to collect himself, while Marley gave the last of his orders.

"Put them in the Vermont granite quarries, and keep them at work for the
next year."

"As you say, Leader. With the usual secrecy, of course?"

"No, you blockhead! These are a bunch of nobodies. Use all the publicity
you can get. Keep a punishment a secret and how can it have any effect
on other people? No, I want full radio and news coverage and telecast
showings as they swing the first pick at the first rocks. People have
got to realize that the Leader knows best, that treason doesn't pay. No
matter how clever they think they are, they'll always get caught.
Understand?"

"As you say, Leader."

"Then get going." As the guard left the room, Leader Marley turned to
David. "What fools people are!"

He ran his beefy hands through a shock of black hair, blinked his eyes,
and wrinkled the heavy black brows that met over his nose. Wonderingly,
he shook his massive head as he drew his gleaming needler from his
breast pocket and played with it, tossing it from hand to hand while he
talked.

"I'm probably the most generous Leader the State has had since the
Atomic Wars, Wong, and I never withhold a privilege from someone who has
deserved it. But people mistake me wh