The first thing that Amalfi noticed upon entering his office Was that Hazleton looked uncomfortable. This was practically a millennial event. Nothing had ever disturbed Hazleton before; he was very nearly the perfect citizen of space: resilient, resourceful, and almost impossible to surprise—or bluff. There was nobody else in the office but a girl whom Amalfi did not recognize; probably one of the parliamentary secretaries whp handled many of the intramural affairs of the city.

"What's the matter, Mark? Where's the Utopian contact man?"

"There," Hazleton said. He didn't exactly point, but there was no doubt about his meaning. Amalfi felt his eyebrows tobogganing over his broad skull. He turned and studied the girl.

She was quite pretty: black hair, with blue lights in it; gray eyes, very frank, and a little amused; a small body, well made, somewhat on the sturdy side. She was dressed in the most curious garment Amalfi had ever seen—she had a sort of sack over her head, with holes for her arms and neck, and the cloth was pulled in tightly above her waist. Her hips and her legs down to just below her knees were covered by a big tube of black fabric, belted at the top. Her legs were sheathed into token stockings of some sleazily woven, quite transparent stuff. Little flecks of color spotted the sack, and around her neck she had a sort of scarf—no, it wasn't a scarf, it was a ribbon—what was it, anyhow? Amalff wondered if even deFord could have named it.

After a moment the girl began to seem impatient of his inspection, and he turned his head away and continued walking toward his desk. Behind him, her voice said gently, "I didn't mean to cause a sensation, sir. Evidently you didn't expect a woman . .. ?"

Her accent was as archaic as her clothes; it was almost Eliotian. Amalfi sat down and collected his scattered impressions. ,

"No, we didn't," he said. "However, we have women in positions of authority here. I suppose we were misled by

Earth custom, which doesn't allow women much hand in the affairs of the military. You're welcome, anyhow. What can we do for you?"

"May I sit down? Thank you. First of all, you can tell us where all these vicious fighting ships come from. Evidently they know you."

"Not personally," Amalfi said. "They know the Okie cities as a class, that's all. They're the Earth police."

The Utopian girl's piquant face dimmed subtly, as though she had expected the answer and had been fighting to believe it would not be given.

"That's what they told us," she said. "We . . . we couldn't accept it. Why are they attacking us then?"