ned either individually or all
together from a switch on the fourth floor, where your sepoys are
quartered."

"I know, Mr. Gilbert; I screen-viewed the whole installation. I've seen
regular maximum-security prisons that would be easier to get out of."

"Governor general Kovac is not objecting personally. He has been
pressured into it by this Native Welfare government-within-the-Government.
They don't know what I'm doing with those shoonoon, but whatever it is,
they're afraid of it."

"Well, for the present," Maith said, "I think I'm holding them off. The
Civil Government doesn't want the responsibility of keeping them in
custody, I refused to assume responsibility for them if they were kept
anywhere else, and Kovac simply won't consider releasing them, so that
leaves things as they are. I did have to make one compromise, though."
That didn't sound good. It sounded less so when Maith continued: "They
insisted on having one of their people at the Suzikami Building as an
observer. I had to grant that."

"That's going to mean trouble."

"Oh, I shouldn't think so. This observer will observe, and nothing else.
She will take no part in anything you're doing, will voice no
objections, and will not interrupt anything you are saying to the
shoonoon. I was quite firm on that, and the governor general agreed
completely."

"She?"

"Yes. A Miss Edith Shaw; do you know anything about her?"

"I've met her a few times; cocktail parties and so on." She was young
enough, and new enough to Kwannon, not to have a completely indurated
mind. On the other hand, she was EETA which was bad, and had a master's
in sociography from Adelaide, which was worse. "When can I look for
her?"

"Well, the governor general's going to screen me and find out when
you'll have the shoonoon on hand."

Doesn't want to talk to me at all, Miles thought. Afraid he might say
something and get quoted.

"For your information, they'll be here inside an hour. They will have to
eat, and they're all tired and sleepy. I should say 'bout
oh-eight-hundred. Oh, and will you tell the governor general to tell
Miss Shaw to bring an overnight kit with her. She's going to need it."

He was up at 0400, just a little after Beta-rise. He might be a
civilian big-wheel in an Army psychological warfare project, but he
still had four newscasts a day to produce. He spent a couple of hours
checking the 0600 'cast and briefing Harry Walsh for the indeterminate
period in whi