THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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They just don't want anybody else to have it."

"No, we don't," Shanlee said. "We don't want the whole Federation
breaking up into bloody anarchy, and that's what'll happen if you dig
that thing up and put it into operation."

Nobody said anything except Fawzi, who began an indignant contradiction
and then subsided. Tom Brangwyn lit a cigarette.

"Would you mind letting me have one of those?" Shanlee said. "I haven't
had a smoke since I came here. It wouldn't have been in character."[Pg 173]

Brangwyn took one out of the pack, lit it at the tip of his own, and
gave it to Shanlee with his left hand, his right ready to strike.
Shanlee laughed in real amusement.

"Oh, Brother!" he reproved, in his former pious tones. "You distrust