The Weapon Makers

Robert Hedrock has secretly kept the Weapon Shops running for centuries behind an unchanging face, arming citizens of the Isher Empire against their own government under the shops' old promise: the right to buy weapons is the right to be free. When Empress Innelda Isher discovers that the immortal founder she thought was legend is real and moving against her, Hedrock's origins come under threat of exposure just as a new invention -- reaching other star systems -- throws the balance between Empire and Weapon Shops into crisis. Set seven years after The Weapon Shops of Isher, second in van Vogt's Isher sequence.