Part 7 (1/2)
”Well, I think it's a good idea to keep quiet about it, ht,” Rodney Maxwell said ”Then we don't want this coe coe”
”Good name, Rodney,” Dawes approved ”That a motion? I second it”
Unanian suggesting other topics for consideration--capitalization, application for charter, election of officers, stock issues Conn paid less and less attention Industrial finance and organization wasn't his subject, either His father was plunging happily into it as though he had been pro companies all his life Conn sat and doodled with his six-color pen, et all this cleared up now,” Lester Daas protesting
”Your Honor, I est that co; everybody wanted to be on all the coh committees to include everybody
”Well, that see day after to set up, and we should be able to organize ourselves and elect per else to discuss, or do I hear a ht to have some idea of what the first operation would be
”You heard me mention a spaceport,” Conn said ”I can tell you, now, that it's over on Barathrum, inside the crater of an extinct volcano
I think we ought to have a look at that, first of all”
”I know you seemed to think yesterday that Merlin is off-planet,”
Fawzi said, ”I'ht here on Poictesht to nail that spaceport down first,” Conn argued
”Conn, you eneral headquarters,” Zareff said ”They thought we'd possibly send a fleet here to blitz Poictesround headquarters would be the safest place on the planet; they'd ht out in the rain, not when it's raining hellburners and planetbusters Merlin would be too big to take there along with them, so they'd put it there in the first place”
That made sense If he'd been Foxx Travis, and if there had been a Merlin, that was exactly where he'd have put it himself But there was no Merlin, and he wanted a shi+p He argued ave in
”I want to find Merlin asI was trained for We'll look there first”
Soround Force Command headquarters was
”Why, it's in the Badlands, over between the Blaubergs and the east coast”
”Great Ghu! We'll need an arwyn said
”That's where all these outlaws have been coet an arht make a little of that reward money that's been offered”
”We'll need more than that Well need excavation equipment, and labor
Lots of labor,” Conn said ”It's a couple of hundred feet below the surface; fro pit, built the headquarters in it, and filled it in There are two entrances, a vertical shaft and a horizontal tunnel”
”When they pulled out, they probably filled the shaft and vitrified the rock at the outer ends,” his father added ”That hat they did at Tenth Army”
Another idea hit him ”Mr Mayor, do you think you could set up soram here in Litchfield? We can't start this till after the wine-pressing's over, and we'll need a lot of labor, as I pointed out Now, it's iet our claims filed If we start this ive work to a lot of these drifters who haven't been able to get jobs on the plantations, get theether till we're ready for the Force Command job”
Lorenzo Menardes supported the idea ”And while they were boondoggling around in Litchfield, we could pick out the best workers, get rid of the inco to be one of our worst headaches; getting capable supervisors”