"He sent it here, too. I haven't seen it. Something about a Grim Reaper?"

"Something about the Monument-Makers," Richard explained. Ed began to look uncomfortable.

"We've got a problem," he said. "You know we're getting ready to pull the plug on Quraqua."

Richard knew. Quraqua was first in line to be terraformed. It was to be the New Earth. (No other world offered hope of supporting a settlement, save Inakademeri. Nok. But that garden world was already home to a civilization.) Now, a wide group of powerful interests saw Quraqua as a laboratory, a place to establish a Utopia, a place to start over. "When?"

"Six weeks. A little less. Henry was supposed to be out of there by now. But you know how he is. Hell, Richard, once they start, we're finished. Forever."

Well, for a half-century anyhow. Might as well be forever. "You can't let it happen, Ed. The situation's changed."

"I can't see how. Nobody gives a damn about the Monument-Makers. Not really. You and me, maybe. Not the taxpayers. And certainly not the politicians. But a lot of people are excited about terraforming. There won't be any more delays."

"Have you spoken to Caseway?"

"No. And I don't intend to. That son of a bitch wouldn't give us the time of day. No." Homer's eyes flashed. Richard read his old friend's frustration. "Look, you know I would if I thought there was a chance. Why don't you try talking to him?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. He thinks you're the big hotshot with this outfit. He's read your books. Always speaks highly of you. Asked me why the rest of us couldn't be more like you. Wald wouldn't put his own interests first, he says. Thinks you have a sense of decency. Unlike me, apparently."

Richard grinned. "Can't argue with him there." The wind howled over the house. "Ed, can you get me transportation to Quraqua?"

"Why?"

"Because we're running out of time. I'd like to see the Temple. And Oz. Can you do it?"

"We have a flight going out to pick up Henry and his people."

"When?"

"When can you be ready?"

"Soon as the storm blows over. Thanks, Ed."

The comers of Homer's mouth rose. "I want you to do something for me."

"Name it."

"Two things, actually. I would like you to consider talking to Caseway. And, when you get to Quraqua, make sure Henry gets off with time to spare. Okay?"

NEWS DESK

NO END IN SIGHT FOR MIDWEST DROUGHT

Small Farm Bankruptcies Up Ninth Straight Year

NAV, Quebec Promise Help

INFLATION SOARS TO 26%

October Figures Fueled by Food, Medical Costs

Housing, Energy Down Slightly

GREENHOUSE GROUP PESSIMISTIC Natural Processes Have Taken Over, Says Tyler

"We Waited Too Long" President-Elect Announces Wide-Ranging Agenda

How You Going to Keep Them Off the Farm?

EUROPEAN URBAN POPULATION HITS NEW LOW 71 % Now Live in Rural or Suburban Areas

Similar Trend in NAU (See related story following)

FOXWORTH REASSURES MAYORS

ON FOOD TRANSPORT Insists Breakdown Cannot Happen Again Will Implement Ad Campaign To Halt Flight from Cities

BRITAIN, FRANCE REVEAL PLANS FOR NEW INNER

COUNCIL "We Can Avoid the Old Mistakes," says Kingsley

Cites "Executive Group with Teeth" Haversham Warns of World Government

572 DIE IN MIDAIR COLLISION OVER MED Massive Search on for Black Box

HORNCAF ARRESTED WITH PROSTITUTE

Holovangelist Claims Interest Only in Her Soul

Sex Scandal Latest in Series

WET YEAR PREDICTED FOR MEXICO Rainfall Expected to Double Summer Planting in Danger

THIRD WORLD GROUP CALLS FOR SHUTDOWN OF MOONBASE

"Insult to World's Starving Populations"

Demonstrations Scheduled in NAU, UK, Russia,

Germany, Japan

MARK HATCHER BURIED IN LONDON Dead With Six-pack, A Poetic Tour Through the Great Famine

Won PulUzer in 2172 Had Been in Seclusion 30 Years

MILLIONS DEAD IN INDOCHINA

Drought Worsens Throughout Subcontinent Council to Consider Options

REBELS SEIZE KATMANDU Hundreds Die in Street-Fighting

NAU POPULATION REACHES 200 MILLION

Foxworth Promises Action Propose More Benefits for Childless Couples

POPE ON THIRD DAY OF FRENCH TOUR

Soys Moss at Notre Dame Nouveau Exhorts Faithful on Advantages of Celibacy

GROUND WATER DESTROYING EGYPTIAN

MONUMENTS

Ancient Heritage at Risk

Restoration Groups Mobilize

GUNMAN KILLS SEVEN IN LIBRARY

Shoots Self as Police Close In Former Girlfriend Hides in Stacks

POLL REVEALS AMERICANS TURNING OFF POLITICS Voters Cynical in Wake of Sex, Money Scandals

ISRAELI LEADER DENOUNCES QURAQUA RELOCATION PLAN "We Will Wait for a World of Our Own"

NAU WILL CUT BACK STAR FLIGHTS

Move Forced by Budgetary Constraints

(See two related stories following)

LIVABLE WORLDS EXTREMELY SCARCE

Odds Astronomical Commission Recommends Resources Go Elsewhere

Quraqua To Be Ready in Fifty Years "One New World Is Enough," Says Hofstadtler

PROTEST PLANNED BY NEW-EARTH SOCIETY "Don't Abandon the Hunt," Warns Narimata

The chime brought her out of a warm, silky dream. She fumbled at the lamp stand and touched the commlink. "Yes?"

"Hutch?" Richard's voice. "They tell me you're the pilot for the Temple flight."

"Yes," she said sleepily.

"Good. I'll be going with you."

She came awake. That was a pleasant surprise. She had not been looking forward to a month alone rattling around in Wink. "I'm delighted to hear it," she said. But she wondered why he'd bother. This was strictly an evacuation run.

"I'd have asked for you in any case," he was explaining.

"And I'd have appreciated the business." Hutch was a contractor, not an employee of the Academy. "Why are you going?"

"I want to see Oz," he said.

Richard signed off. Below, a tour boat with a canvas awning circled Republic Island, leaning to port while its passengers crowded the rail. They carried umbrellas against a light rain that had been falling all morning. They munched sandwiches, and dragged windbreakers for which they had no need. A fat man in a misshapen gray sweater sat in back, feeding gulls.

A brisk wind disturbed the surface of the river. Richard watched from his air taxi. Brightly colored pennants fluttered along both beams. A young couple on the starboard side paid far more attention to each other than to the monument. On the island, a group of kids, shepherded by a harried woman with a cane, trailed blue and red balloons. The fleet of sailboats that usually filled the river had not appeared. The fat man crumpled a white bag and opened another. He looked at peace with the world.

Richard envied him. Feed the gulls, and enjoy the monuments.

The taxi banked west. Constitution Island lay to his right, with its cluster of public buildings. The old Capitol had all but vanished into the rising mist. The Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Brockman monuments stood serenely on their embankments. And the White House: nothing in D.C. quite stirred the emotions like the sight of the former executive mansion, defiant behind its dikes. Old Glory still flew, rippling above the green and white banner of the North American Union. This was the only site in the country where the national colors gave precedence to another flag. Lights burned in the towers along the Arlington shore. The air taxi swung in a wide arc toward the Virginia side Richard reluctantly turned his thoughts to the coming ordeal. He disliked confrontations. He was accustomed to deference, to people who listened politely and, if they disagreed, knew how to respond without being disagreeable. Norman Caseway, CEO of Kosmik, Inc., was the prime mover behind the Second Earth initiative. And he could be expected to show no such fastidiousness. Caseway was no respecter of per-sons. He was an alley fighter, a brawler who enjoyed leaving hoofmarks on opponents. He particularly relished assaulting academic types, as several of Richard's colleagues had discovered to their dismay.