Part 23 (1/2)
”Why do we ” Fawzi spluttered indignantly ”If you don't know”
”I knohy I do I want to see if you do Do you?”
”Merlin would answer so ently
”Questions I can't answer for al code and a systeive everybody absolute justice,” Judge Ledue said
As if absolute justice wasn't the last thing anybody in his right senses would want; a robot-judge would have the whole planet in jail inside a month
”We have a man who joined us after you went off to Koshchei, Conn,”
Franz Veltrin said ”A Mr Carl Leibert He's soyman, from over Morven way He says that Merlin could forenerate humanity”
”Well, I don't have any such lofty ideas,” Fawzi said ”I just want Merlin to show us how to get sos back to what they were before Poictes to do You're going into the woods with a book on how to chop down a tree, and no ax” Fawzi looked at hiht better of it ”If ant prosperity, we need tools Our problem is loss ofthat's happened in the forty years since it was shut down, Merlin will tell us where to find new markets But the , and we'll need shi+ps Now, youfor Merlin, all your lives I can't add anything to what you know, and neither can my father You find Merlin, and we'll have the shi+ps ready when you do find it”
”Kurt, I think he has a point,” soht he has,” Klem Zareff put in ”If it wasn't for Conn Maxwell, you knohere we'd be? Back in Litchfield, sitting around in Kurt's office, talking about hoonderful things'll be e find Merlin, and doing nothing to find it”
”Kurt, I believe Conn is entitled to an apology,” Judge Ledue ruled
”How close we are to finding Merlin I don't know, but it is due to hi it at all”
”Conn, I'htn't to have said soe; we've been having so ht there at Force Command; I know it is
We've been all over the place We have shafts sunk at each of the corners; we've used scanners, and put off echo shots Nothing We looked for additional passages out of the headquarters; there aren't any But it has to be soo out to Force Co you've overlooked And if I can't, I'll try to scrape up some stuff on Koshchei for you Deep-vein scanners, that sort of thing, from the mines”
They took the _Lester Dawes_ out at a little past noon and turned south and east Everybody aboard was happy--except Conn Maxwell He was thinking of the years and years ahead of these trusting, hopeful old rave of another expectation Two hundred miles from Force Command, the _Goblin_ met them, her sides still spalled and dented from the hits she had taken in Barathruht of it, thewhere in Nifflheis, and the seismo-trucks, were
Somebody with a pair of binoculars called attention to activity on the side of the high butte on top of which the relay station was located
Fawzi began swearing exasperatedly
”Might be soested
”Then why in blazes didn't he screen us about it?”
”Who is this Leibert?” Conn asked ”So, I think”
”He joined us after you left, Conn,” Dolf Kellton said ”He's a clergyular denomination; he has a sect of his own”
”Yah, he would!” Kleood ht to use Merlin to show us the true nature of God, and how to live in accordance with the Divine Will He says Merlin can teach us a new religion”