t send him back. He's hard to handle
and he makes discipline a problem."

"Could you tell me--or would it be violating security?" Kennon said.
"Why do you have a Class II installation on full war footing out here?"

Mullins chuckled. "It's no secret," he said. "There was a commercial
raid on this place about fifty years ago. Seems as though one of our
competitors didn't like us. Alexandria was on a war footing then and
managed to hold them off. But it scared the Old Man. You see, our
competitive position is based on Lani labor. Our competitors didn't know
that. Their intelligence wasn't so good. Up until that time, we'd been
keeping the males out here in what was hardly more than a stockade.
Those people could have taken a few dozen females and a couple of males
and they'd have been in business. But they didn't know. They tried to
smash Alexandria instead. Naturally they didn't have a chance. And after
it was over the Old Man got smart. He still had the tapes for Alexandria
so he built a duplicate out here and spent a few millions on modern
armament. The way we're set now it'd take a battle group to hurt us."

"But how about security? Don't the others know about the Lani now?"

"It's a moot question. But it won't do them any good. They can't crack
this place, and without males, all the females on Flora wouldn't do
them enough long-term good to pay for the force they'd need to be
successful."

"So that's why the males are isolated."

"There's another reason--two of them in fact. One is physical. Even
the best male is a dangerous beast. They have a flair for violence that
makes them useless as labor and their training doesn't help matters.
And the other is mental. The females on the main island believe that we
humans are responsible for the continuation of their breed. This tends
to keep them in line. We have a great deal more trouble with them out
here once they know the truth. We've had a number of cases of females
trying to engineer a male's escape. But they're never repeated," Mullins
said grimly. "Actually, it would be an interesting life out here, except
for the abattoir." He grimaced. "That's an unpleasant chore."

"You mean--" Kennon said.

"Why, certainly. What else could we do with senile animals?"

"But that's murder!"

Mullins shook his head. "No more than killing a cow for beef."

"You know," Kennon said, "I've never thought of what happened to aged
Lani. Sure, I've never seen one, but--Lord Liste