Both bankers were shocked at his tone. “But it is!” cried Lord Voraz. “Everything has a price! Anything can be bought.”

“Things like decency and loyalty can't be,” said Jonnie.

“Young man,” said Lord Voraz sternly, “you are very talented and have many other fine qualities, I am sure, but there have been some radical omissions in your upbringing!”

“I wouldn'a talk to him like that,” warned Sir Robert.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Lord Voraz. “Forgive me. In my effort to help, I permitted myself to be carried away.”

“That's better,” growled Sir Robert and loosened his grip on his claymore.

“You see,” said Lord Voraz, “a scientist is supposed to be hired by a company. What he develops belongs to the company. It 's quite disastrous for a scientist to try to go it alone and manage his own developments and affairs. All companies and all banks and certainly all governments agree on this totally. A scientist is supposed to quietly draw his salary, turn over his patents to the company, and go on working. It 's all been arranged that way. Why, if he tried to do anything any other way, he'd spend all his life in law courts. That is how it has been carefully arranged.”

“So the shoes a cobbler makes belong to him,” said Jonnie, “but the developments of a scientist belong to the company or the state. I see. Very plain.”

Lord Voraz overlooked the sarcasm. Or didn't hear it.

“I am so glad you understand. Money is everything and all things and talent are for sale. And that's the heart and soul of banking, the very cornerstone of business. A first principle.”

“I thought making a profit was,” said Jonnie.

“Oh, that too, that too,” said Lord Voraz. “So long as it is an honest profit. But believe me, the heart and soul-”

"I’m so glad to know,” said Jonnie, “that banking and business have a heart and soul. I hadn't been able to detect one thus far.”

“Oh, dear,” said Lord Voraz. “You are being sarcastic.”

“Anything that destroys decent people has no heart and soul,” said Jonnie. “And by that I include banking, business, and government. These concerns can only exist if they are for

people. If they serve the wants and needs of the ordinary being!”

Lord Voraz looked at him searchingly. He thought for a bit. There was something in what Sir Lord Jonnie was saying.... He gave it up. He was a banker.

"Indeed," said Lord Voraz, “you are a peculiar young man. Perhaps when you get old enough to understand the ways of the world-'

Sir Robert's tensing was halted by the arrival of MacAdam and Baron von

Roth.

“Who's a peculiar young man?” said Baron von Roth. "Jonnie? Indeed he is. Thank gott! I see you two were early,” he shot at Dries and Lord Voraz. “Never saw anybody so anxious to collect their pound of flesh! Shall we begin?”

Part XXX

Chapter 1

Andrew MacAdam and Baron von Roth put down piles of papers and attache cases on the floor on their side of the table, briefly shook hands with Dries Gloton and Lord Voraz, and sat down.

Jonnie blinked. MacAdam and the baron were wearing gray suits! They were expensive tweed and the individual fibers sparkled, but they were gray suits!

The four of them sat there at the table for a bit, just looking across it at one another. Jonnie was reminded of some gray wolves he had once seen, prowling back and forth, eyes alert, teeth ready, sizing each other up before they plunged into a snarling, slashing fight to the death.

And it was a fight to the death, for if MacAdam and the baron lost, that was the end of the people of this planet and all they held dear. He didn't have the least idea what MacAdam and the baron had been doing, and it was with a sinking feeling that he heard MacAdam fire the first shot of the battle.

“Are you sure,” said MacAdam, “that you gentlemen couldn't give us a little more time? Say another month?”

Dries showed his double row of teeth as his lips curled back. "Impossible! You have waited until the last moment.

There can be no extension.”

“Times are very bad,” said the baron. “There are economic upsets everywhere.”

“We know that,” said Lord Voraz. “It cannot be used as an excuse. If you were unable to pay your just debts and settle your obligations, you could have said so days ago and spared us this wait. I can't imagine what you were doing.”

“I was interrogating abandoned crew members of the departed ships,” said MacAdam. “It was a bit difficult to find an officer of each race that attacked this planet.”

“And they told you there were economic upsets,” said Dries. “You might as well sign this quitclaim to the planet now and get it over with.” He pushed a form at Sir Robert, who didn't get a chance to take it.

MacAdam pushed the form back to the table and let it drop. “I found that these crewmen did not want to go home. They had been conscripted, actually press-ganged into their services. Some felt that on return they might have to take part in revolutions or civil wars and did not want to fire on their own people. Some felt that if they went home they would just be discharged and have to join the mobs of unemployed that were starving and sometimes rioting in the streets of many capitals.”

“This is nothing new,” said Lord Voraz. “All this past year there has been unrest. That's why these emissaries here are planning wars of foreign conquest– to take the peoples' minds off all this. You could have asked me. I would have told you.”

“This changes nothing,” said Dries. “I advise you to surrender the planet tamely. For any of these emissaries would like nothing better than to buy this planet and mount a military expedition to wrest it from you. The ships that were up there were nothing compared to what could be sent against you. So if you will just-'

The baron fixed him with a bayonet stare. He said, “Having collected all the data available locally, we went to see for ourselves.”

Jonnie came alert. Ah, so that's what all that firing was about. This pair had been traveling all over the place! He'd noticed faint air mask marks on their jaws. Had they been doing something else than just traveling?

“There is economic chaos!” said the baron. “When Intergalactic Mining Company ceased to deliver metals, the scarcity caused their prices to soar. Factories are closed. People are out of work and rioting. To distract them, the governments are planning wars that are not popular. To get metals to build weapons, they are even commandeering peoples' cars and the pots and pans of housewives.”

Dries shrugged. “This is not news and it is totally off the subject of your unpaid balance. Does the Earth emissary sign this or do we resort-” He let the threat hang.

The air seemed charged with electricity for a moment.

The baron's pale gray eyes bored into Dries Gloton. “You are in severe trouble, Your Excellency.”

The branch manager shrugged. "Internal concerns of the bank have no bearing on your paying up as you are obligated to do.”

Baron von Roth turned to Sir Robert. “His Excellency here committed his sector branch bank to some very unwise personal loans to the high executives on the Psychlo planets Torthut and Tun in the Batafor System and some even bigger personal loans to the Psychlo regent governors of sixteen Psychlo-owned planets in four nearby star systems. Those loans were secured by holdings in real estate on Psychlo itself.”

“How did you find that out?” snapped Dries. “It is confidential bank information!”

“A disgruntled employee you sacked,” said the baron. “The real estate on Psychlo went up in smoke and the debtors are dead. An unwise bank risk. Psychlos were renowned for bad faith.”