t his hair, cursing and
crying at the same time. President Ferraro had his gun out and was
staring at it grimly. It was hard to tell if he was thinking of murder
or suicide. I didn't care which. All he had to worry about was the next
election, when the voters and the political competition would carve him
up for losing the ship. My troubles were a little bigger.

I had to find the battleship before it blasted its way across the
galaxy.

"Rocca!" I shouted. "Get into the car. I want to see your records--_all_
of your records--and I want to see them right now."

He climbed wearily in and had directed the driver before he fully
realized what was happening. Blinking at the sickly light of dawn
brought him slowly back to reality.

"But ... admiral ... the hour! Everyone will be asleep...."

I just growled, but it was enough. Rocca caught the idea from my
expression and grabbed the car phone. The office doors were open when we
got there.

Normally I curse the paper tangles of bureaucracy, but this was one time
when I blessed them all. These people had it down to a fine science. Not
a rivet fell, but that its fall was noted--in quintuplicate. And later
followed up with a memo, _rivet, wastage, query_. The facts I needed
were all neatly tucked away in their paper catacombs. All I had to do
was sniff them out. I didn't try to look for first causes, this would
have taken too long. Instead I concentrated my attention on the recent
modifications, like the gun turret, that would quickly give me a trail
to the guilty parties.

Once the clerks understood what I had in mind they hurled themselves
into their work, urged on by the fires of patriotism and the burning
voices of their superiors. All I had to do was suggest a line of search
and the relevant documents would begin appearing at once.

* * * * *

Bit by bit a pattern started to emerge. A delicate webwork of forgery,
bribery, chicanery and falsehood. It could only have been conceived by a
mind as brilliantly crooked as my own. I chewed my lip with jealousy.
Like all great ideas, this one was basically simple.

A party or parties unknown had neatly warped the ship construction
program to their own ends. Undoubtedly they had started the program for
the giant transport, that would have to be checked later. And once the
program was underway, it had been guided with a skill that bordered on
genius. Orders were originated in many places, passed