Chapter
5
THE NEXT DAY, while I was loading garbage on a train that was going to the incinerator, a boy in yellow sequins came and spoke to the man in charge of us, who turned and called to me. "You are ordered to report to the office of the Commissioner for War," he said; "this messenger will take you."
"Hadn't I better change my clothes?" I asked. "I imagine that I don't smell very good."
The boss laughed. "The Commissioner for War has smelled garbage before," he said, "and he doesn't like to be kept waiting." So I went along with the yellow-clad messenger to the big building called the House of the Janhai, which houses the government of Unis.
I was conducted to the office of one of the Commissioner's assistants.
He looked up as we entered. "What do you want?" he demanded.
"This i
