“Well, you’ve got to be the richest man in the world, ” said Kira.

“Couldn’t you just buy another one?”

Modred chuckled. “If I could have done that, there would have

been no need for me to steal it in the first place. Apollonius was

assembled by Yamako industries in Tokyo and programmed by

General Hyperdynamics in Colorado Springs. The latter only does

work for the government and for the I. T. C. and although Yamako

industries might be approached, it would be a very complicated

matter. There are only a few such computers in existence. The

United States government has replaced the one I’d stolen and the I.

T. C. also has one now. It’s possible, in fact, it’s very probable that

the Japanese have one, as well, though if they do, they’ve kept it

highly secret. There’s certainly no such machine in private hands.

Such a contract would be bound to attract a great deal of attention

and attention is the one thing we do not need.”

“Couldn’t you use one of your corporate blinds to purchase one?”

asked Wyrdrune.

“I could, but I’d be inviting certain investigation. Still, it’s a

highly tempting thought. However, that would not solve the entire

problem. There would still be the matter of properly programming

the machine, which only General Hyperdynamics is equipped to do.

And I could hardly approach them openly. None of my aliases or

blinds could withstand a detailed government scrutiny.”

‘What if you didn’t approach them openly?“ asked Wyrdrune.

“In that case, they would almost certainly penetrate my cover

that much sooner.”

“I wasn’t talking about using a cover, ” Wyrdrune said. “If they’re

the ones who programmed Apollonius, they obviously would have

had to write the program first. And wouldn’t it stand to reason that

they’d keep a backup copy on file?”

Modred put down his glass slowly. He suddenly looked very

interested. “Go on. What are you getting at?”

‘’What if we could raid their data banks and steal the backup

program?“

“How?”