"Why not?"
"Ordinance 3."
The wall around Joetropolis was made of genuine tree trunks treated
with preservative and sharpened at the top. Heavy, pointed,
irregularly spaced stakes, thrust at angles into the ground, fringed
the wall. The effect of these crude fortifications was barbaric, even
primitive. Bare electrical wires, strung on insulators fastened to the
stakes, only accentuated the prehistoric picture.
"Follow the marked path," Toal said.
The zigzagging path was not more than a meter wide. I avoided touching
the wires and reached open ground. A small gate in the wall swung
inward, and a man wearing a white sack stalked out. He looked like an
older brother of Ypsilanti. The two men behind him looked like younger
brothers. Their knees and elbows were indecently exposed.
"Are arrested!" they chorused. One carried a hisser so ancient that it
could have been the original model. The others had hand weapons.
"I apologize if I've broken your laws," I said, "but I don't know--"
"Ignorance of law is no excuse!" exclaimed the older man, who had
"Dominant" on his brooch. He ordered, "Stop Betty Toal!" One of the
guards chased the fleeing Toal along the wall.
"I'm Ube Kinlock," I said. "Galactic Government sent me in answer to--"
"Silence, criminal alien! Ordinance 55: Criminal aliens shall never
speak, unless so ordered."