"No. About the reporter. You told her no? Your answer was no, sir?"
"Naturally. We couldn't let her put her pretty head in the lion's mouth."
"Oh, Lord, sir," the sergeant-major said. "I gave her an unlimited pass."
"Sergeant!"
"She said you had ... sir...."
"An unlimited pass—sergeant! Send out an alarm for that girl. We're all right as long as she doesn't leave the mainland. But if she goes to the Mandmooran Island, where those hold-out sun-worshippers are...."
"She'll make tracks for there, all right," the sergeant-major predicted.
"Stop her. Stop her before she gets that far! Because once she crosses to the island, there isn't a thing we can do about it. You can't tell a nova to wait, sergeant!"
"I'll try to stop her, sir."
"Make it a general alarm, sergeant. You've got to stop her."