<blockquote>"Last I heard," interrupted Golovin, whose sweet smile softened what would otherwise have been a sharp profile, "the point of a free country is that you can buy your coffee and listen to your music where you please, and that you can sell that coffee and play that music for somebody without anybody interrogating anybody about political preferences first. Or are you fellows Soviets? Because if you are, I--"
"Don't get cute," growled Sanders, who had a voice like thunder and had never, in the six years Les had worked under him, been afraid to use it. He pulled Brenner's sheet toward him and pointed to the top line. "November 8 of last year, three Negros with known communist sympathies were arrested coming out of your establishment--"
"Is liking music while being colored a federal crime now?" Golovin folded his arms and looked smug. In another context, that might have gotten him at least a chuckle; here, no one was laughing.</blockquote>
