ook a swing at Joe and grazed
his cheek. It was a good thing that was all he did; he was wearing
brass knuckles. Joe went down a couple of feet, bending at the knees,
and caught this fellow around the hips with both hands, straightening
and lifting him over his head. Then he threw him over the heads of the
people in front of him. There were yells where the human missile
landed.

"That's the stuff, Joe!" Oscar shouted. "Come on, we got them on the
run!"

That, of course, converted a strategic retreat into an attack. We got
Joe aimed toward the doors and before he knew it, we were out in the
hall by the elevators. There were a couple of Ravick's men, with
sergeant-at-arms arm bands, and two city cops. One of the latter got
in Joe's way. Joe punched him in the face and knocked him back about
ten feet in a sliding stagger before he dropped. The other cop grabbed
me by the left arm.

I slugged him under the jaw with my ten-sol right and knocked him out,
and I felt the wrapping on the coin roll break and the quarters come
loose in my hand. Before I could drop them into my jacket pocket and
get out the other roll, one of the sergeants at arms drew a gun. I
just hurled the handful of coins at him. He dropped the pistol and put
both hands to his face, howling in pain.

I gave a small mental howl myself when I thought of all the nice
things I could have bought for ten sols. One of Joe Kivelson's
followers stooped and scooped up the fallen pistol, firing a couple of
times with it. Then we all rushed Joe into one of the elevators and
crowded in behind him, and as I turned to start it down I could hear
police sirens from the street and also from the landing stage above.
In the hall outside the meeting room, four or five of Ravick's
free-drink mercenaries were down on all fours scrabbling for coins,
and the rest of the pursuers from the meeting room were stumbling and
tripping over them. I wished I'd brought a camera along, too. The
public would have loved a shot of that. I lifted the radio and spoke
into it:

"This is Walter Boyd, returning you now to the regular entertainment
program."

A second later, the thing whistled at me. As the car started down and
the doors closed I lifted the handphone. It was Bish Ware again.

"We're going down in the elevator to Second Level Down," I said. "I
have Joe and Tom and Oscar Fujisawa and a few of the _Javelin_ crew
with me. The place is crawling with cops now."

"Go to Third Level