When he arrived at Dome 7 the duty patrolman stood up and said, "Can I help you sir?" "Yes," said Kenom, "I would like to see Master Lector please." "One moment please," said the patrolman, as he headed for a door at the far end of the room. In a moment he reappeared and said, "Master Lector will see you now, right this way." When Kenom entered the room he found Master Lector seated behind a large desk. There were four large Fleck-lords standing or sitting to his left. Standing to the right of Master Lector, was the largest of the Fleck-lords, Fleck-lord Brutum. Master Lector was a small and frail old man, which surprised Kenom, considering his reputation.
Master Lector did not rise but said, "Patrolman Kenom, how good of you to call, I was told you stopped by earlier. I'm sorry if our duty patrolman treated you with less respect then he should have, but most of our patrolman are not quite themselves today, as you must know our Dome won the throwing and jumping competition again at the sporting games this war season, and ... well most of them haven't completely recovered from our big victory celebration." "That is quite alright," said Kenom. "Well then, patrolman Kenom, what can I do for you?" Kenom leaned forward in his chair and said, "I am here in regards to the condition over at the Verton Maintenance Dome. I was there yesterday and I found their dome to be in very poor condition." Master Lector looked up at Lord Brutum, and said, "Lord Brutum is in charge of the Vertons, what do you know about this Lord Brutum? "
Lord Brutum was a low LEB sportsman. One could easily see that he only cared for sports and his organic body and little else. He, and the other lords who were setting in the room, showed little respect to Kenom. It was obvious to Kenom that Master Lector had abdicated his authority to his lords. Lord Brutum answered, directly to Kenom, "Those Vertons are a bunch of lazy good for nothing rabble, it takes ten of them to do the work of one Flectman. Look at the shape our tunnels are in, I am not surprised that their dome is in a mess too." Kenom tried to control his anger at this arrogant outburst. Looking back at Master Lector, Kenom said, "They need some new generators." Master Lectod looked up again at Lord Brutum, "Do we have any generators?" he asked. "None that we can spare." was his reply. "We give them plenty of power from our dome power units, they don't need any generators." Master Lector looked over at Kenom, "I'm sorry, patrolman, but it looks like there is nothing we can do for you." Kenom said, "Perhaps I could go down to the supply section and have a look for myself." Lord Brutum abruptly said, "Patrolman from the Mini-domes are not allowed in that section." Now Kenom was really getting angry, he stood up and said to Master Lector, "I was hoping to do this the easy way, but you force me to do otherwise."
Kenom pulled his order form from his pocket and handed it to Master Lector. Master Lector read it and turned pale, he stood up bowed and said, "I apologize to you Special Patrolman Kenom, I was unaware...." He said nothing else, but remained in this position, eyes fixed on the paper in his hands. All the lords could see that something serious was happening. They all stood up and looked to Lord Brutum for guidance. Lord Brutum looked down at the order and began to turn white. All he had to see was the Commander's seal on the order to know that he was in deep deep trouble. Kenom took the order from Flexmaster hand and slipped it back into his pocket. Lord Brutum attempted to say something but all he could do was give a salute and stand at attention. The rest of the lords did likewise. All was silent for a while, Master Lector with his head bowed, the four lords at attention. Finally Kenom said, "With my authority settled then, why don't we all go down to the supply section and look for those generators." With that Kenom pinned the special patrolman badge to his uniform and they all left for the supply room.
Kenom was only the second patrolman to ever get Priority Patrolman status on Ob. The first Priority Patrolman was a Zimtellion from Womatt. He found and rooted out Flexton corruption throughout the compound. Seventy five Flecktons, including three Fleck-masters, were sent back to Flecton to face court marshal as a result of one of his investigations, so the power of a Priority Patrolman is well known in this dome. The Dome Commander as a rule looks the other way when it comes to the Flextons, even though he has the power to remove anyone from duty in the dome. But when an outsider gets that much power everyone runs for cover.
It is not surprising then to get such a reaction from Master Lector and his lords. On the way to the supply section every Flectoid-patrolman they passed snapped to attention when they saw the badge and the Flexmaster and his Fexlords looking so grim. They knew something was going down. Kenom would find it all rather amusing if it were not for the seriousness of the situation with regards to the Vertons.
Inside the supply section they found ten brand new generators, still in their shipping cases. They also found tons upon tons of all sorts of electronic gear, everything imaginable. Master Lector seemed as surprised as Kenom at the amount of stuff stored there. He was so embarrassed at how his lords had deceived him that he almost came to tears.
Kenom felt sorry for this old man and said, "Perhaps you can have three of these generators sent over the Verton Maintenance dome, Master Lector, they would be very grateful." Master Lector collected himself at this show of respect; he turned to Lord Brutum, "See that three of these generators are delivered to the Vertons immediately." "Yes sir!" was the reply. "Leave them in the tunnel," said Kenom. Kenom didn't want any Flectons to go into the Verton's dome in the chance that they would happen to see some exposed electro bodies. "Yes sir!" said Lord Brutum. "Well then," said Kenom, "I have no further business here today, so I will be on my way. Thank you Master Lector,.. Lords."
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