ars old. I
never knew many heroes that got that old."

It was my turn to nod. On that, Dad had a point. I said something
about getting the news, not making it, and checked the chamber and
magazine of the Sterberg, and then slung my radio and picked up the
audiovisual outfit.

Tom and Joe Kivelson had left already, to round up the scattered
Javelin crew for fire fighting. The attack on the Municipal Building
and on Hunters' Hall had been postponed, but it wasn't going to be
abandoned. Oscar and Professor Hartzenbosch and Dad and a couple of
others were planning some sort of an observation force of a few men
for each place, until the fire had been gotten out or under control.
Glenn Murell decided he'd go out with me, at least as far as the fire,
so we went down to the vehicle port and got the jeep out. Main City
Level Broadway was almost deserted; everybody had gone down below
where the excitement was. We started down the nearest vehicle shaft
and immediately got into a jam, above a lot of stuff that was going
into the shaft from the First Level Down, mostly manipulators and that
sort of thing. There were no police around, natch, and a lot of
volunteers were trying to direct traffic and getting in each other's
way. I got some views with the jeep camera, just to remind any of the
public who needed reminding what our city administration wasn't doing
in an emergency. A couple of pieces of apparatus, a chemical tank and
a pumper marked SALAMANDER VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY NO. 3 came along,
veered out of the jam, and continued uptown.

"If they know another way down, maybe we'd better follow them," Murell
suggested.

"They're not going down. They're going to the lumber plant, in case
the fire spreads upward," I said. "They wouldn't be taking that sort
of equipment to a wax fire."

"Why not?"

I looked at him. "I thought you were in the wax business," I said.

"I am, but I'm no chemist. I don't know anything about how wax burns.
All I know is what it's used for, roughly, and who's in the market for
it."

"Well, you know about those jumbo molecules, don't you?" I asked.
"They have everything but the kitchen sink in them, including enough
oxygen to sustain combustion even under water or in a vacuum. Not
enough oxygen to make wax explode, like powder, but enough to keep it
burning. Chemical extinguishers are all smothering agents, and you
just can't smother a wax fire. And water's worse than useless."

He wanted to know