Part 5 (2/2)
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 ht 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 Ho arrests or taking prisoners Finally, he parted fro the row of stores and business places, e 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
”I see you've started carrying one,” he said, nodding to the pistol Conn had laid aside
”Civic obligation I' to be too busy for Home Guard duty, but if I can protectuns around, there wouldn't be so ood opinion of Wade Lucas start to slip The Liberals on Terra had been full of that kind of talk, which hy only four out of ten of last year's graduating class at Aret active commissions The last war had been a disaster, so don't prepare for another one; when it comes, let it be a worse disaster
”Guns don't make trouble; people make trouble If the troublemakers are armed, you have to be armed too When did you last see an Air Patrol boat around here, or even a Constabulary trooper? All we have here is the Howyn and three deputies, and his pay and theirs is always six overnment, an unemployment rate that rises every year, currency that buys less every month And do-it-yourself justice” The doctor blew a s and watched it float toward the ventilator-intake ”You said you're going to be busy This co?”
”That's right You're going to be at theat the Academy this afternoon, aren't you?”
”Yes Just what are you going to do, after you get it organized?”
”Well, I brought back inforreat deal of undiscovered equipment and stores that the Third Force left behind” He talked on for so for my father and ated to take in the people who contributed toward sending ht to be interested in it I know of six fully supplied hospitals, intended to take care of the casualties in case of a Systeine, better than I can, ould be in the hard to find But look here; you're not going to let these people waste ti they call Merlin, are you?”
”We're looking for any valuable war material I don't know the location of Merlin, but--”
”I'll bet you don't!” Lucas said vehe Flora had said
”--but Merlin is undoubtedly the most valuable ite run, I'd say, ether We certainly aren't going to ignore it”
”Good heavens, Conn! You aren't like these people here; you were educated at the University of Montevideo”
”So I was I studied computer theory and practice I have sos these laye Ledue think it could Those sorts of erations have to be allowed for But I have no doubt whatever that theis probably the greatest mechanism of its sort ever built, and I have no doubt whatever that it still exists somewhere in the Alpha System”
He almost convinced himself of it He did not, however, convince Wade Lucas, as now regarding hiorically state that that coeneral idea Yes I certainly do believe that Merlin exists”
Maybe he was telling the truth Merlin existed in the beliefs and hopes of people like Dolf Kellton and Klee Ledue and Kurt Fawzi Merlin was a God to them Well, take Ghu, the Thoran Grandfather-God Ghu was as preposterous, theologically, as Merlin was technologically; Ghu, except to Thorans, was a Federation-wide joke
But he'd known a couple of Thorans at the University, funny little felloith faces like terriers, their bodies covered with matted black hair They believed in Ghu the way he believed in the Second Law of Thermodynamics Ghu ith them every moment of their lives Take away their belief in Ghu, and they would have been lost and wretched
As lost and wretched as Kurt Fawzi or Judge Ledue, if they lost their belief in Merlin He started to say soht better of it
Yes, Virginia, there _is_ a Santa Claus