ooded
tidewater area. They just dumped the lot of them onto us. We have them
penned up in a lorry-hangar on the military reservation now." He turned
to Gonzales. "How many do you think you'll gather up out here, general?"
he asked.

"I'd say about a hundred and fifty, when we have them all."

Travis groaned. "We can't keep all of them in that hangar, and we don't
have anywhere else--"

Sometimes a new idea sneaked up on Miles, rubbing against him and
purring like a cat. Sometimes one hit him like a sledgehammer. This one
just seemed to grow inside him.

"Foxx, you know I have the top three floors of the Suzikami Building;
about five hundred hours ago, I leased the fourth and fifth floors,
directly below. I haven't done anything with them, yet; they're just as
they were when Trans-Space Imports moved out. There are ample water,
light, power, air-conditioning and toilet facilities, and they can be
sealed off completely from the rest of the building. If General Maith's
agreeable, I'll take his shoonoon off his hands."

"What in blazes will you do with them?"

"Try a little experiment in psychological warfare. At minimum, we may
get a little better insight into why these natives think the Last Hot
Time is coming. At best, we may be able to stop the whole thing and get
them quieted down again."

"Even the minimum's worth trying for," Travis said. "What do you have in
mind, Miles? I mean, what procedure?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure, yet." That was a lie; he was very sure. He
didn't think it was quite time to be specific, though. "I'll have to
size up my material a little, before I decide on what to do with it.
Whatever happens, it won't hurt the shoonoon, and it won't make any more
trouble than arresting them has made already. I'm sure we can learn
something from them, at least."

Travis nodded. "General Maith is very much impressed with your grasp of
native psychology," he said. "What happened out here this morning was
exactly as you predicted. Whatever my recommendation's worth, you have
it. Can you trust your native driver to take your car back to Bluelake
alone?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then suppose you ride in with me in my car. We'll talk about it on the
way in, and go see General Maith at once."

Bluelake was peaceful as they flew in over it, but it was an uneasy
peace. They began running into military contragravity twenty miles
beyond the open farmlands--they were the chlorophyll green of Terran
vegeta