midnight
He fell in beside the spy , paying less attention now to the man himself than to the matter of disposing of him . The garish facade of a nearby joy-bar solved his problem . `` Come with me , '' Alcorn ordered . * * * * * The joy-bar was less than half full at this early hour , but noisy enough for midnight . A concealed battery of robotics ground out a brassy blare of music , integrating random pitches -- selected by electronic servo-computers -- into the jarring minor cacophony that had become the latest rage . The early patrons were intently watching the long telescreen above the bar when Alcorn came in . A quarterstaff bout -- a frantic , bloody sport revived from God only knew how many centuries before -- was in progress there , matching a heavily muscled Nordic with a sandy bristle of hair against a swarthy , hairless Eurasian .