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"The ... the justice," said Derec tearfully, "didn't name it in court, because it would have to be published. But he's set your bond at fifty million credits! Nobody could raise that for you, Bron! And with the reason for it what it is, you'll never be able to get it reduced." "But anybody who looks at the plans of the receptor will know it can't make deathrays!" protested Hoddan blankly.
Soames swallowed. He knew what Fran would want to make. A mere local projector of deathrays would be trivial beside the consequences of what Fran was desperately resolved to do for his own people. He heard himself say something relatively soothing. "Maybe," he observed, "he's not that dangerous. You're worried about how he passed those electrified fences. He used stilts. He knew about them.
I've got Bluevale crammed with cops and plainclothesmen. That whole town is one big trap for that kid right now. And the cops will shoot! Because we don't know what that kid will make. If those kids had something that'll read your mind, made by grownups, maybe he'll make something that'll burn it out! He looks human, but he came out of space from Godknowswhere. Maybe he'll make deathrays!"
"Nobody will look," said Derec tearfully. "Anybody who knows how to make it will have to be locked up. They checked the patent examiners. They've forgotten. Nobody dared examine the device you had working. They'd be jailed if they understood it! Nobody will ever risk learning how to make deathrays not on a world as civilized as this, with so many people anxious to kill everybody else.
"If you can trust me not to make deathrays, I'd like to make a generator of odd-shaped microwaves. They're described in textbooks. They ionize the air where they strike. That's all. They make air a high-resistance conductor. Nothing more than that."
Then he went off with great dignity but shaking with panic to think up more nonsense." "Evidently," said Hoddan in relief, "you believe me when I say that my gadget doesn't make deathrays." The ambassador looked slightly embarrassed. "To be honest," he admitted, "I've no doubt that you invented it independently, but they've been using such a device for half a century in the Cetis cluster.
"What's that?" "Your machine killed him. He was outside the building at the foot of a tree. Your receptor killed him through a stone wall! It broke his bones and killed him.... Bron " Derec wrung his hands. "At some stage of power-drain your receptor makes deathrays!" Hoddan had had a good many shocks today.
"Say ours," said Don Loris hopefully. "With my experience of men and affairs, and my loyal and devoted retainers " "And cozy dungeons," said Hoddan. He wiped his mouth. "No." Don Loris started violently. "No, what?" "No deathrays," said Hoddan. "I can't make 'em. Nobody can.
When Hoddan showed no comprehension, the Ambassador explained, "The man your friend Derec thought was killed by deathrays. It develops that he'd gotten a terrific load on drunk, you know and climbed a tree to escape the pink, purple, and green duryas he thought were chasing him to gore him. He climbed too high, a branch broke, and he fell and was killed.
The police can't let anybody go free who knows how to make them! This is a wonderful world, but there are lots of crackpots. They'll do anything! The police daren't let it even be suspected that deathrays can be made! That's why you weren't charged with murder.
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