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Show he cried. "But the Snoop r e a d o u t . . . " He began pulling papers out of his brief case, " . . . t h e Snoop readout s a y s . . . " He began reading a memo he held up in his hand. "...that Grant-Sheblem is planning the Revolution for..." He scanned the memo. "Oh," he said, and slumped in his chair. "Forsooth; they have had to postpone the Revolution!" He laid the memo down and looked at it blankly. "There!" said Ivan, slapping the VM on the back. "Seest thou? We have naught to worry us! We can start the machinery moving on Monday coming to convert to hardcopy." "Aye," said Andrus. "But we must needs hold a planning meeting in full array afore starting any machinery!" "I beg leave to suggest, my good friend," said Jensen, who was not to be outdone, "that we must needs hold a preplanning meeting with all the VMs attending, in company with their first level staffs, for to brief each wight full well on all implications. In f i n e . . . ." Ivan, on his side, looked thoughtful. He served in various capacities on numberless committees concerning the Governor during the past TwelveMonth and knew full well what pitfalls there were to tumble into concerning a thing like this. "Aye, but my fair friends," he interrupted, "we must inaugurate this step in good measure, or we be no true Exalted Board!" He pulled a flat can of tobacco from his tunic, shook some of the aromatic stuff into his pipe, and began pushing it down into the bowl with his index finger. "Monday at first peep of the working day, I will summon me the research folk t o g e t h e r . . . " He hunted around for his cache of matches and found them under his napkin. "...and commission a 196 |