"Let him keep it then," Ursi said angrily, rubbing a pointed blue chin. "I'll destroy its power principle first."
Baldy sighed. "I repeat, this isn't a brainless Martian without legal rights. You abandoned it, a human found it. By merely picking up the tool, he establishes a salvage claim."
"You call that law?" Ursi raged. "Stupid technicalities that settle one problem to raise a worse one?"
"Until the Council ratifies the amendment foreseeing this contingency," Baldy explained, "you must abide by the original code."
"But the tool's restricted!"
"Restricted for thirty solar years according to the Probability Graphs," mused Baldy. "You should have thought of that."
Ursi's wide glittering eyes terrified Clark. But after an agonizing silence, he heard Ursi whine fearfully, "We can't allow this! Can't you read his basic attitudes? He's suffering from the Korb power complex."
Baldy shrugged. "Your misfortune, my dear Ursi."
Ursi edged warily toward Clark as if he were a ferocious but chained beast. "Your nation is a member of the Western Alliance?"
Bewildered, Clark cleared his throat. "Yes."