nce I'd left the
_Times_. I called back. Dad hadn't heard a word from him.

"What's the situation at Hunters' Hall?" I asked.

"Everything's quiet there. The police left when Hallstock commandeered
that fire-fighting equipment. They helped the shipyard men get it out,
and then they all went to the Municipal Building. As far as I know,
both Ravick and Belsher are still in Hunters' Hall. I'm in contact
with the vehicles on guard at the approaches; I'll call them now."

I relayed that. The others nodded.

"Nip Spazoni and a few others are bringing men and guns up from the
docks and putting a cordon around the place on the Main City Level,"
Oscar said. "Your father will probably be hearing that they're moving
into position now."

He had. He also said that he had called all the vehicles on the First
and Second Levels Down; they all reported no activity in Hunters' Hall
except one jeep on Second Level Down, which did not report at all.

Everybody was puzzled about that.

"That's the jeep that reported Bish Ware going in on the bottom,"
Mohandas Feinberg said. "I wonder if somebody inside mightn't have
gotten both the man on the jeep and Bish."

"He could have left the jeep," Joe said. "Maybe he went inside after
Bish."

"Funny he didn't call in and say so," somebody said.

"No, it isn't," I contradicted. "Manufacturers' claims to the
contrary, there is no such thing as a tap-proof radio. Maybe he wasn't
supposed to leave his post, but if he did, he used his head not
advertising it."

"That makes sense," Oscar agreed. "Well, whatever happened, we're not
doing anything standing around up here. Let's get it started."

He walked away, raising his voice and calling, "_Pequod_! _Pequod_!
All hands on deck!"

The others broke away from the group, shouting the names of their
ships to rally their crews. I hurried over to the jeep and checked my
equipment. There wasn't too much film left in the big audiovisual, so
I replaced it with a fresh sound-and-vision reel, good for another
couple of hours, and then lifted to the ceiling. Worrying about Tom
wouldn't help Tom, and worrying about Bish wouldn't help Bish, and I
had a job to do.

What I was getting now, and I was glad I was starting a fresh reel for
it, was the beginning of the First Fenris Civil War. A long time from
now, when Fenris was an important planet in the Federation, maybe
they'd make today a holiday, like Bastille Day or the Fourth of July
or Federation