Metafire

Ferguson told the Major, "We must arrest all the Sante Fe Metafire people immediately. I will get our agents to their location."

"All right. I'll clear that." The Major picked up the telephone and called the White House.

"John, we've got another problem. The White House is getting flack on Metafire. It seems they have a number of very important customers. The flack is coming from businesses, our government, and even foreign governments. It seems that after our visit to Metafire, the word spread that the Metafire software company was in danger of being shut down. The Director of the FBI is now involved. The FBI will be sending in somebody soon to take over."

"Oh, great. These guys are hijacking our Shuttle, and now we have to let them do it?" Ferguson was being philosophical, but he knew that he was still in charge. "There are only four Metafire people here. We'll send out agents to hold them under house arrest. I guess, considering the possibility of some lawyer getting into this, they can still do their business until we resolve the issues. Let me have the phone."

Ferguson got on the telephone and arranged to have agents from Albuquerque join those in Sante Fe. It would take three hours, but the Metafire personnel left in Sante Fe would be fully contained. The Sante Fe agents had already arrived on site to prevent anyone from leaving the Metafire facility. Metafire would be off line until the other agents arrived who could monitor each person's activities.