o-Fuzzy; the commentator in the car was being
extremely sarcastic about the whole thing. Into the middle of one view of
a rifle-bristling line of beaters somebody in the studio cut a view of the
Fuzzies, taken at the camp, looking up appealingly while waiting for
breakfast. "These," a voice said, "are the terrible monsters against whom
all these brave men are protecting us."

A few moments later, a rifle flash and a bang, and then a fusillade
brought Jack's heart into his throat. The pickup car jetted toward it; by
the time it reached the spot, the shooting had stopped, and a crowd was
gathering around something white on the ground. He had to force himself to
look, then gave a shuddering breath of relief. It was a zaragoat, a
three-horned domesticated ungulate.

"Oh-Oh! Some squatter's milk supply finished." The commentator laughed.
"Not the first one tonight either. Attorney General--former Chief
Prosecutor--O'Brien's going to have quite a few suits against the
administration to defend as a result of this business."

"He's going to have a goddamn thundering big one from Jack Holloway!"

The communication screen buzzed; Gerd snapped it on.

"I just talked to Judge Pendarvis," Gus Brannhard reported out of it.
"He's issuing an order restraining Emmert from paying any reward except
for Fuzzies turned over alive and uninjured to Marshal Fane. And he's
issuing a warning that until the status of the Fuzzies is determined,
anybody killing one will face charges of murder."

"That's fine, Gus! Have you seen the girl or her father yet?"

Brannhard snarled angrily. "The girl's in the Company hospital, in a
private room. The doctors won't let anybody see her. I think Emmert's
hiding the father in the Residency. And I haven't seen the two cops who
brought them in, or the desk sergeant who booked the complaint, or the
detective lieutenant who was on duty here. They've all lammed out. Max has
a couple of men over in Junktown, trying to find out who called the cops
in the first place. We may get something out of that."

The Chief Justice's action was announced a few minutes later; it got to
the hunters a few minutes after that and the Fuzzy hunt began falling
apart. The City and Company police dropped out immediately. Most of the
civilians, hoping to grab five thousand sols' worth of live Fuzzy, stayed
on for twenty minutes, and so, apparently to control them, did the
constabulary. Then the reward was cancelled, the airborne fl