THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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"Well, no." He went into the routine about Merlin being still classified
triple-top secret. "But we'll find it. It may take time, but we will."

They talked for a while. He asked more questions about the Home Guard.
His father, it seemed, had donated all the equipment. They had a hundred
and seventy men on the active list, but they had a reserve of over eight
hundred, and combat vehicles and weapons on all the plantations and in
all the towns along the river. The reserve had only been turned out
twice; both times, outlaw attacks had been stopped dead?literally. The
Home Guard, it appeared, was not given to making arrests or taking
prisoners. Finally, he parted from them, strolling on along the row of
stores and business places, many vacant, under the south edge of the
Mall, until he saw a fluorolite sign, WADE LUCAS, M. D. He entered.

Lucas wasn't busy. They went into his consultation office, and Conn took
off his gun-belt and hung it up; Lucas offered cigarettes, and they
lighted and sat down.