THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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got to his feet, hitching his gun-belt. "I'll pass the word to Kurt to
get a meeting set up for tomorrow afternoon."

"What'll we call this company? Merlin Rediscovery, Ltd?"

"No! We keep Merlin out of it. As far as the public is supposed[Pg 24]
to know, this is just a war-material prospecting company. I'll impress
on them that Merlin is to be kept a secret. That way, we'll have to
engage in regular prospecting and salvage work as a front. I'll see to
it that the front is also the main objective." He nodded down the Mall,
toward the sunset, which was blazing even higher and redder. "Well,
let's go. You don't want to be late for your own welcome-home party."

They walked slowly, still talking, until they came to the end of the
Mall. The escalators to the level below weren't working. Now that he
thought of it, they hadn't been when he had gone away, six years ago,
but he could remember riding up and down on them as a small child. For a