"How nice! You know, I don't know of anything I'd rather have happen to me?"
"Get James on there—you, James...."
"You don't need to fire me, you fat-headed old goat," James said, contemptuously. "I've already quit—the exact second you fired Clee."
"No you didn't!" Ferber screamed. "Resignation not accepted. You're Fired! Dishonorably discharged—blacklisted everywhere—you'll never get another job—anywhere! And here's your slip, too!" Miss Foster was very fast on the machines.
James 'ported his slip up into the Pleiades, just as Garlock and Belle had done with theirs, and disappeared with it as they had; reappearing almost instantly.
"Montandon!"
"Chancellor Ferber, are you completely out of your mind? You can't discharge either Miss Bellamy or me."
"I can't?" he gloated. "Why not?"
"Because neither of us is employed. By anybody."