returned. "I'd've cut the whole thing down if I'd had had the time.
Not the stone--just the steel. In order to apply that kind of pressure
you have to have the filament fastened to something considerably
harder than the stuff you're trying to cut, you see. Don't try it with
your fingers or you'll lose fingers."

Fergus' eyes widened again and he looked both ill and frightened. "The
man we sent ... uh ... who was found in your room. You--" He stopped
and seemed to have trouble swallowing.

"Me? _I_ didn't do anything." Morgan did a good imitation of a shark
trying to look innocent. "I'll admit that I looped a very fine
filament of the stuff across the doorway a few times, so that if
anyone tried to enter my room illegally I would be warned." He didn't
bother to add that a pressure-sensitive device had released and reeled
in the filament after it had done its work. "It doesn't need to be
nearly as tough and heavy to cut through soft stuff like ... er ...
say, a beefsteak, as it does to cut through steel. It's as fine as
cobweb almost invisible. Won't the World Welfare State have fun when
that stuff gets into the hands of its happy, crime-free populace?"

Edway Tarnhorst became suddenly alert. "What?"

"Yes. Think of the fun they'll have, all those lovely slobs who get
their basic subsistence and their dignity and their honor as a free
gift from the State. The kids, especially. They'll _love_ it. It's so
fine it can be hidden inside an ordinary thread--or woven into the
hair--or...." He spread his hands. "A million places."

Fergus was gaping. Tarnhorst was concentrating on Morgan's words.

"And there's no possible way to leave fingerprints on anything that
fine," Morgan continued. "You just hook it around a couple of nails or
screws, across an open doorway or an alleyway--and wait."

"We wouldn't let it get into the people's hands," Tarnhorst said.

"You couldn't stop it," Morgan said flatly. "Manufacture the stuff and
eventually one of the workers in the plant will figure out a way to
steal some of it."

"Guards--" Fergus said faintly.

"_Pfui._ But even you had a perfect guard system, I think I can
guarantee that some of it would get into the hands of the--common
people. Unless you want to cut off all imports from the Belt."

Tarnhorst's voice hardened. "You mean you'd deliberately--"

"I mean exactly what I said," Morgan cut in sharply. "Make of it what
you want."

"I suppose you have that kind of trou