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If you have to, get rid of her There are easy ways"

"She'll be all right Besides, she's useful" Georgos was uncoed the subject “The truck depot last night ell You saw the reports?"

The big o that way There isn't time or money to waste on bummers"

Georgos accepted the rebuke silently, though he didn't have to He was the leader of Friends of Freedo's role was secondary, as a link to the outside, particularly to those supporters of revolution-"drawing room Marxists"-who favored active anarchy but didn't want to share its risks Yet Birdsong, by his nature, liked to appear doet aith it because of his usefulness, particularly the ht in

Money was the reason right now for avoiding an arguos needed more since his earlier sources had abruptly dried up His bitch of a mother, the Greek movie actress who had supplied him with a steady income for twenty years, had apparently hit hard ti film parts anymore because not even oddess looks gone forever That part Georgos was delighted about and hoped things would get progressively worse for her If she were starving, he told hiive her a stale biscuit Just the same, a notification from the Athens lawyers-impersonal as usual-that no o bank account Georgos' cash needs involved current costs and future plans One project was to build a small nuclear bomb and explode it in or near the headquarters of Golden State Power & Light Such a bo, the exploiters and lackeys in it, and also much else around-a salutary lesson to the capitalist oppressors of the people

At the same time, Friends of Freedom would become an even more formidable force than now, to be treated with awe and respect

The idea of creating an atoh not entirely After all, a twenty-one-year-old Princeton student named John Phillips had already demonstrated in a much publicized term paper that the "how to" details were available in library referencethe patience to asseos Winslow Archambault, steeped in physics and chemistry, had obtained all the information he could about Phillips' research and had built up a file of his own, also using library data One non-library itee handbook put out by California's Office of Eencies; it outlined ways of dealing with atomic bomb threats and that, too, had provided useful infor a detailed working drawing However, actual construction of a bomb would require fissionable material, which would have to be stolen, and that would take ht be done; stranger things had happened

He told Birdsong, "Since you've brought up tireen now"

"You'll get it" Birdsong per in "And plenty I found another money tree"

3

Ni It was shortly after 7 aust

Ruth had gone downstairs ten minutes earlier to prepare breakfast Leah and Benjy were still sleeping Now Ruth returned, appearing at the bathroom door with a copy of the Chronicle-West

"I hate to start your day off badly," she said, "but I know you'll want to see this"

"Thanks" He put down his razor and took the newspaper et 1hands, scanning the front page Below the fold was a single-column item:

GSP & L,

Rate Hike

Disallowed

Electricity and gas rates are not going up

This was revealed yesterday afternoon by the California Public Utilities Co its turndown of an application by Golden State Power & Light for a 13 percent increase in gas and electric rates which would bring the giant utility another 580 million annual revenue

"We do not see the need for an increase at this time," the PUC stated in a decision arrived at by a 3-2 vote of the commissioners

At public bearings GSP & L had argued that it needscosts due to inflation and to raise capital for its construction program

High officials of GSP & L were not available for coret and concern for the future energy situation in California However, Davey Birdsong, leader of a consuht for people hailed the decision as

Nim put the newspaper on the toilet tank beside hi; he had learned of the decision late yesterday so the report was confirmation When he went downstairs Ruth had his breakfast ready-las-and she sat opposite him with a cup of coffee while he ate