Don nodded. "At the risk of offending a lot of Buffalonians, I'm beginning to dislike the place."
"It isn't the people," said Arden. "It's the position we're in. Bad, huh?"
"Not going too good at all. Kingman slips in a sly dig every now and then. Frankly, I am getting worried. He's got a few points that really hit very close to home. If he can sell the judge on a couple more of them, we'll be under the sod."
"You won't be out entirely, will you?"
"Not entirely. He'll have to use the beams of Venus Equilateral to operate, but he'll be collecting all the real gravy. We'll just be leasing our beams to him."
"Well, don't go down without a fight, chum."
"I won't. I really hate to see Kingman get ahead of this, though." Don stretched, took another look out across the city of Buffalo, and then said: "We'd best be getting back. We'll be late ... he said ten minutes."
They went down the staircase slowly, and at the courtroom door they met Keg Johnson. The latter smiled wearily. "Not too good?"
"Nope."
"Don, if you lose, then what?"