Part 5 (1/2)
He found the file his father kept up-to-date on salvage sites found and registered with the Claiht back data for had been discovered, but, to his relief, not the underground duplicate Force Command Headquarters, and not the spaceport on the island continent of Barathruht
He went to the house-defense arms closet and found a 10- sure that the pistol anda vehicle out of the hangar on the landing stage, decided against it, and started don on foot
One of the first people hethat afternoon He , to coer the material
”Ah, nice,” he complimented ”Made on Terra? We don't see cloth like that here very often”
He ht to be around to see you with a bolt of material, to have a suita short jacket like this, or get him to buy himself a shoulder holster
He's ruined every coat he ever owned, carrying a gun on his hip”
A little farther on, he carounded in the s, and lettered in black, GORDON VALLEY HOME GUARD To reen uniform
”hello, Conn” The town ot all your clothes on thisYou were just plain indecent, yesterday You know Fred Karski, don't you?”
Yes, now that Toether at the Litchfield Academy But the six years since they'd seen each other last hadto think that the only strangers in Litchfield were his own contemporaries They shook hands, and Conn looked at the co on?” he asked ”The Systehed ”Oh, that's the Colonel's idea Green and black were his colors in the War, and he's in coiment?” Conn asked
”Well, it's two coular ariment so he can keep his old Rebel Arwyn said seriously ”You have no idea how bad things have gotten Over on the east coast, the outlaws are looting whole towns About four o, they sacked Waterville; burned the whole town and killed close to a hundred people That was Blackie Perales' gang”
”Who is this Blackie Perales? I heard the name mentioned in connection with the _Harriet Barne_”
”Blackie Perales is anybody the Planetary Government can't catch, which means practically any outlaw,” Fred Karski said
”No, Fred; there is a Blackie Perales,” Towyn said ”He used to be a planter, down in the south The banks foreclosed on him when he couldn't pay his notes, and he turned outlaw That's the way it's going, all around Every time a planter loses his plantation or a farmer loses his farm, or a mechanic loses his job, he turns outlaw
Take Tra but melons Then, when the sale for wine and brandy dropped, theproduce, instead of buying it fro land into pasture for cattle The people we used to buy foodstuffs from couldn't sell all they raised, and that threw a lot of farot the idea there ork here, and they caet jobs, they just stayed in Tra they could We don't even try to police Tramptown any more; we just see to it they don't come up here”
”Well, where do these outlaws and pirates who are looting whole towns come from?”
”Down in the Badlands, anized the Home Guard They tried to, a couple of times, at first There may have been a few survivors; they spread it around that Gordon Valley wasn't any outlaws' health resort”
”Why don't you join us, Conn?” Fred Karski asked ”All our old gang belong”
”I'd like to, but I'wyn nodded ”Yes You will be, at that,” he agreed
”So I hear,” Fred Karski said ”Do you really knohere it is, Conn?”
”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 ill”