THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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light; it was like being in the middle of an aurora borealis. What was
going on where that tiny rotating beam of cosmic rays was grinding at
the collapsium simply couldn't have been imagined.

Conn would have liked to stay outside; he could not. Too many things
were happening in too many places, and it was all coming in by screen.
Rioting had broken out in Storisende and in a dozen other places. He
saw, on a news-screen, a mob raging in front of the Executive Palace;
yellow-shirted Cybernarchists were battling with city police and
Planetary troops, Armageddonists and Human Supremacy Leaguers were
fighting both and one another. Above all the confused noise of shouting
and shooting, an amplifier was braying: "/It's a lie! It's a lie! Merlin
has been found!/"[Pg 169] Newsmen began arriving?Zareff's men had orders
to pass them through the cordon that had been put up around Force
Command?and they took up his time. It was worth it, though. They could
tell him what was going on.