Part 4 (1/2)
But he couldn't even go back to yesterday afternoon in Kurt Fawzi's office and tell theo ahead It had see on the Mall; just get a shi+p built, and get out to Koshchei, and open soine works there, and build a hypershi+p Sure; easy--once he got started
He climbed out of bed, knuckled the sleep-sand out of his eyes, threw his robe around him, and started across the room to the bath cubicle
They had decided to have breakfast together his firsthome
The party had broken up late, and then there had been the exciteht back from Terra nobody had had a chance to talk about Merlin, or about what he was going to do, now that he was home That, and his career of mendacity, would start at breakfast He wanted to let his father get to the table first, to run interference for him; he took his time with his toilet and dressed carefully and slowly Finally, he zipped up the short waist-length jacket and went out
His father and -robot was floating around a few inches off the floor, stea froreeted everybody and sat down at his place, and the robot cas he'd been o: shovel-snout bacon, hotcakes, starberry jaone away He filled his plate and poured a cup of coffee
”You don't want to bother co, do you?” his father was saying ”I'll be back here for lunch, and we'll go to the ?” Flora asked ”What ?”
”Oh, we didn't have tiht back a lot of infors like that An aoing to be tooa co; jobs for so awfully big,” hislike that before”
”I never had the kind of a partner I have now It's Maxwell & Son, fro to be in this company?” Flora wanted to know
”Oh, everybody around town; Kurt and the Judge and Klem, and Lester Dawes All that crowd”
”The Fawzis' Office Gang,” Flora said disparagingly ”I suppose they'll want Conn to take the”
”Well, not the first thing,” Conn said ”Merlin was one thing I couldn't find out anything about on Terra”
”I'll bet you couldn't!”
”The people at Ar else, and make microcopies and all, but not one word about computers
Forty years, and they still have the security lid welded shut on that”
Flora looked at him in shocked surprise ”You don't ?”
”Sure How do you think they fought a war around a periht-years? They couldn't do all that out of their heads They'd have to have co and work out grand-strategy plans would have to be a dilly Why, I'd give anything just to look at the operating panels for that thing”
”But that's just a silly story; there never was anything like Merlin
No wonder you couldn't find out about it You were looking for so that doesn't exist, just like all these old cranks that sit around drinking brandy andto do for the for the, now, Flora,” his father told her
”When we get this co up a lot of stuff you won't be able to sell, like that stuff you've been bringing in fro Merlin, like the rest of the in Kurt Fawzi's office talking about it, but not much”
It kept on like that Conn and his father tried several tinored the effort and returned to her diatribe Finally, she put her plate and cup on the robot's tray and got to her feet
”I have to go,” she said ”Maybe I can do so up to be Merlin-worshi+pers like their parents”
She flung out of the roorily Mrs Maxwell looked after her in distress