positive of
what had happened. It was too much like the loss of the _Claymore_,
which had made Ravick president of the Co-op.

Port Sandor had just gotten all of Steve Ravick that anybody could
take. They weren't going to have any more of him, and that was all
there was to it.

Joe Kivelson was grumbling about his broken arm; that meant that when
a fight started, he could only go in swinging with one fist, and that
would cut the fun in half. Another reason why Joe is a wretched shot
is that he doesn't like pistols. They're a little too impersonal to
suit him. They weren't for Oscar Fujisawa; he had gotten a
Mars-Consolidated Police Special out of the chart-table drawer and put
it on, and he was loading cartridges into a couple of spare clips.
Down on the main deck, the gunner was serving out small arms, and
there was an acrimonious argument because everybody wanted a chopper
and there weren't enough choppers to go around. Oscar went over to the
ladder head and shouted down at them.

"Knock off the argument, down there; you people are all going to stay
on the ship. I'm going up to the _Times_; as soon as I'm off, float
her out into the inner channel and keep her afloat, and don't let
anybody aboard you're not sure of."

"That where we're going?" Joe Kivelson asked.

"Sure. That's the safest place in town for Mr. Murell and I want to
find out exactly what's going on here."

"Well, here; you don't need to put me in storage," Murell protested.
"I can take care of myself."

Add, Famous Last Words, I thought.

"I'm sure of it, but we can't take any chances," Oscar told him.
"Right now, you are Fenris's Indispensable Man. If you're not around
to buy tallow-wax, Ravick's won the war."

Oscar and Murell and Joe and Tom Kivelson and I went down into the
boat; somebody opened the port and we floated out and lifted onto the
Second Level Down. There was a fringe of bars and cafes and dance
halls and outfitters and ship chandlers for a couple of blocks back,
and then we ran into the warehouse district. Oscar ran up town to a
vehicle shaft above the Times Building, careful to avoid the
neighborhood of Hunters' Hall or the Municipal Building.

There was a big crowd around the _Times_, mostly business district
people and quite a few women. They were mostly out on the street and
inside the street-floor vehicle port. Not a disorderly crowd, but I
noticed quite a few rifles and submachine guns. As we slipped into the
vehicle