orms
all sweaty and out of press. Besides, the screen draws a lot of power
and they'd have to rev up their motor. The noise would make it rough
for the sound crew. Catch?"

Pete moved his head. "I begin to get the idea," he said. "The inductors
are real touchy when they're armed. They can arc over and flare back in
a real hurry if things get in their fields. That's why the safety
lens--and the iris."

"Sure." Don nodded. "Sure it is. And it keeps the beam tube nice and
unobstructed. Dry, too. As I said, they're pretty safe. Just like
pigeon hunters." He looked out at the field.

"Sort of funny how things can add up," he added. "Here's a guy who
makes all sorts of plans. He's got everything figured out and tied up
with a ribbon. He's got the whole Galactic Federation standing around,
just watching. Not a thing they can do to him legally. And he's got all
Oredan in his pocket--all but one family and a few odd yokels he
doesn't even worry about. So he's about to fix the family.

"Then someone else starts planning. And some little guy goes and slips
a little chunk of fast moving lead down a lens barrel that nobody even
thought of protecting. And everything goes wrong. All kinds of things
happen. Like investigating patrols ordered in by the Stellar Guard. And
conclaves." He grinned and looked at the sky to the west.

"So," he added, "a few little things add up. One family. One little
piece of lead. One house that didn't get blown up. One flight of----"
He let his voice trail off and looked at his watch.

"Wonder where those patrol ships are. They should be in plain sight by
this time, diving down the eastern slope."

He narrowed his eyes, searching the empty western sky.

* * * * *

Pete looked around the courtyard. Broken tiles littered the ground.
Here and there, lay bricks and bits of mortar. Some freak of backblast
had torn a shutter off the house and it lay brokenly a few feet from
him. He looked back toward the house.

One corner of the roof had been shattered and he could see broken roof
beams. A cornice from the wall had crashed into the house front and
bits of it lay strewn through a gaping hole in the living room wall.
Stucco littered the narrow border of shrubbery around the house,
whitening the green of the leaves.

And a twisted bit of metal caught his attention. Obviously, it was part
of a flier. He shook his head and looked at the sky over the western
mount