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of which you somehow broached.
Now, it will be of some interest to know how you did it, never mind 'why?' for
the moment. Begin with the steel-and-concrete legtraps. The Chief of Security
assured me personally that they were impassable. How did you pass them?"
     
                "I didn't notice 'em," O'Leary said.
"Where are they? Must be so well camouflaged they're invisible as well as
ineffective."
     
                "What of the Guards regiment, then? Do you
claim to have slipped past the alert sentries of the most highly honored
organization in the entire Service?"
     
                "If you mean Trog and his boys, they're
overrated," Lafayette said carelessly. "And I didn't see any
keep-out signs."
     
                "Clearly, Frumpkin," Belarius said to
his partner, "the fellow has employed some highly sophisticated
counter-security equipment thus to make mockery of my best efforts."
     
                "Just used my head," O'Leary said
bluntly.
     
                "It's clear the rascal is even more
dangerous than we had suspected," Frumpkin said. "Perhaps we'd best
apply full Class One measures at once, after all. HQ would understand if we
brought in a corpse under the circumstances."
     
                "Seems rather drastic for such an
insignificant-appearing young fellow as this," Belarius responded.
"Just a few more points to clear up. What about it, fellow-me-lad?"
he addressed Lafayette directly. "Will you cooperate in this inquiry or
shall I be forced to invoke full Class One rigor? I leave it to you. Start with
your motivation for your first disruption bombing at Nuclear City."
     
                "Never heard of it," O'Leary said
wearily. "Either Nuke City or a disruption bomb. Sorry."
     
                "Glibness will avail you naught,
fellow," Frumpkin said, wiping a hand across his face as one sore beset
with frustration. He turned to Belarius V. "We've wasted enough time
trying to reason with him," he said tiredly. "I suggest we simply stasis-file
him and get on with the rest of it."
     
                "I've got an idea," Lafayette offered.
"Why not tell me, in simple nontechnical language, just what's going on?
Maybe I could even shed some light on it if I knew what it was all about."
     
                "So you think you're in a position to
bargain, eh?" Frumpkin snorted. "You'll come clean in return for ...
what was your price?"
     
                "Just tell me what happened to get you boys
so upset," Lafayette said, feeling the futility of his request even as he
spoke. "And save the jargon. Pretend I don't know anything about whatever
it is you're so worried about."
     
                "On October eight last," Belarius V
said solemnly, "an attempt was made to destroy the Prime metering vault.
An explosion of force seven on the TRAN scale. Inside the vault. You can see
what that means. So could we all."
     
                "I hate to sound like a dumdum,"
O'Leary said, "but I can't see what that means. Anyway, what does
it have to do with me?"
     
                "He's a resourceful devil, eh,
Belarius?" Frumpkin commented. "No matter what one says, he has a
disclaimer ready."
     
                "But it seems it's always the same
disclaimer," Belarius replied dryly. "See here, fellow," he said
more briskly to Lafayette, "Just what excuse do you offer for your
presence here in defiance of the Code?"
     
                "None at all," Lafayette answered
sharply. "I have a perfect right—or almost perfect—to be here. It's you
two characters who have some explaining to do."
     
                "I think that's quite enough,"
Belarius put in abruptly. He turned to a shabby steamer trunk or large suitcase
beside him. Lifting the lid, he took out a complicated-looking apparatus and
turned to O'Leary.
     
                "Put out your hands, left palm