THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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The Interplanetary Building had been a medium-class residence hotel at
the time of the War. Junior staff officers and civilian technicians and
their families had lived there. It had been vacant ever since the
disastrous outbreak of peace. Now it had a big new fluorolite sign, and
housed the[Pg 147] offices of all the Maxwell companies. There was a
truculent display of anti-vehicle weapons on the top landing stage, and
more Barton-Massarra private police. They looked even more villainous
then the ones at the spaceport. Conn recalled having heard that most of
the Blackie Perales gang had been discharged for lack of evidence; he
wondered how many of them had hired with Barton-Massarra.

The meeting was in a big conference room six floors down; it had been
going on uninterrupted for days, with all the interested companies'
representatives standing watch-and-watch around the clock. Lester Dawes
and Morgan Gatworth and Lorenzo Menardes were there for L. E. & S.;
Transcontinent & Overseas was represented; there were people from
Alpha-Interplanetary, and bankers and financiers, and people from the