On the way to the Med Ship, Calhoun stopped at another place where, on a grass-growing planet, there would have been green sward. There were Earth-type trees, and some native ones, and them there should have been a lawn. The trees were thriving, but the ground-cover plants were and rotting.
Calhoun up a of the semi-slime and it. It was sour, astringent, the same he'd noticed when he opened the door. He the away and off his hands. Something had killed the ground-cover plants which had the of killing Earth-type when planted here.
He listened. Everywhere that live, there are and and other which are parts of the to which the is adjusted. They have to be to and upon every new world that to occupy. But there was no of such here.
It was that the of the Med Ship's was the only noise the city had since its people away.
The Murgatroyd. He said, "Chee!" in a and close to Calhoun. Calhoun his head. Then he said abruptly:
"Come along, Murgatroyd!"
He to the the controls. He didn't look at the this time. He to the the second of a landing-grid. In to up and ships of space, a landing-grid power from the of the upper and it. It provided all the energy that on a world need. It was power, in a way, and by a of miles high, which then be on and by the grid. During his Calhoun had noted that power was still available. Now he looked at what the said.
The on the power-drain moved slowly and forth. It was a movement, going from maximum to minimum power-use, and then again. Approximately six was being taken out of the every two for of one second. Then the cut off for a second and a half, and on again for a second.
Frowning, Calhoun his to a very color photograph on the above the power dials. It was a picture of the human-occupied part of Maya, taken four thousand miles out in space. It had been to four by six, and Maya City be as an group of and a little more than an by three-quarters. The detail was perfect. It was possible to see perfectly straight, thin lines moving out from the city. They were multiple-lane highways, from one city to another, and then straight—though at a new angle—until the next. Calhoun at them.
"The people left the city in a hurry," he told Murgatroyd, "and there was little confusion, if any. So they in that they might have to go. They were for it. If they took anything, they had it packed in their cars. But they hadn't been sure they'd have to go they were going about their as usual. All the shops were open and people were in restaurants, and so on."
Murgatroyd said, "Chee!" as if in full agreement.
"Now," Calhoun, "where did they go? The question's where they go! There were about eight hundred thousand people in this city. There'd be for everyone, of course, and two hundred thousand would take everybody. But that's a of ground-cars! Put 'em two hundred on a highway, and that's twenty-six to the mile on each lane. Run them at a hundred miles an hour on a twelve-lane road—using all one way—and that's twenty-six hundred hour, and that's thirty-one thousand ... two make sixty-two ... three highways.... With two they empty the city in under three hours, and with three close to two. Since there's no of panic, that's what they must have done. Must have it out in advance, too. Maybe they'd done it it ... it was that happened."
He the photograph which was so much more than a map. There were to the north of Maya City, but only one north. There were more to the west. One into them, but not through. To the south there was sea, which around some three hundred miles from Maya City and put the on Maya on a peninsula.
"They east," said Calhoun presently. He lines with his finger. "Three go east; that's the only way they go quickly. They hadn't been sure they'd have to go but they where to go when they did. So when they got their warning, they left. On three highways, to the east. And we'll them and ask what the they ran away from. Nothing's visible here!"
He to the Med Ship, Murgatroyd with him.
As the door closed them, he a from the outside-microphone speakers. He listened. It was a clicking, as of something on and almost at once off again. There was a two-second cycle, the same as that of the power drain. Something six on and off again every two seconds. It a in speakers to microphones, but it didn't make a noise in the air. The were induction; pick-up; like cross-talk on telephone cables.
Calhoun his almost up to his ears. He to the communicator.
"Calling Candida—" he began, and the answer almost his throat.
"Candida to Med Ship. Come in! Come in! What's there?"
"The city's without any of panic," said Calhoun, "and there's power and nothing to be down. But it's as if somebody had said, 'Everybody clear out' and they did. That doesn't on a whim! What's your next port of call?"
The Candida's voice told him, hopefully.
"Take a report," Calhoun. "Deliver it to the public health office you land. They'll it to Med Service headquarters. I'm going to here and out what's been going on."
He dictated, as he did so he couldn't what he reported. Something had taken place, but there was no as to what it was. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a public health affair. But any the size of this one public health factors.
"I'm to investigate," Calhoun. "I will report when or if it is possible. Message ends."
"What about our passenger?"
"To the with your passenger!" said Calhoun peevishly. "Do as you please!"
He cut off the and prepared for activity the ship. Presently he and Murgatroyd to look for transportation. The Med Ship couldn't be used for a search operation; it didn't fuel. They'd have to use a ground vehicle.
It was again to note that nothing had moved but sun shadows. Again it that had walked out of some door or other and failed to come back. Calhoun saw the of jewelers' shops. Treasures in plain view. He saw a florist's shop. Here there were Earth-type flowers thriving, and some flowers with olive-green which as well as the Earth-plants. There was a in which a plant had grown, and that plant was and about to rot. But a plant that had to be in a cage....
He a ground-car agency, for cars, for those on Maya. He in and from the on he one, an car. He its key and it hummed. He it out into the empty street, Murgatroyd him.
"This is luxury, Murgatroyd," said Calhoun. "Also it's theft. We medical can't such things. Or have an to them. But these are times, so we take a chance."
"Chee!" said Murgatroyd.
"We want to a population and ask what they ran away from. As of the moment, it that they ran away from nothing. They may be pleased to know they can come back."
Murgatroyd again said, "Chee!"
Calhoun through ways. It was somehow nerve-racking. He as if someone should out and say "Boo!" at any instant. He an and a leading up to it. At a he eastward, for any of life. There was none.
He was nearly out of the city when he the impact of a boom, and then a away which to come from away as it died out. It was the result of something traveling than sound, so that the noise it away had to catch up with the it nearby.
He up. He saw a as a against the blue. Then he the deeper-toned of a skyward. It be a spaceliner's lifeboat, into and going out again.
It was. It had left a behind, and now to space to with its parent ship.
"That," said Calhoun impatiently, "will be the Candida's passenger. He was enough."
He scowled. The Candida's voice had said its to be for reasons. And Calhoun had a against some of men who would think their own more than anything else. Two years before, he'd a health on Texia II, in another sector. It was a and a single enterprise. Illimitable had been with an Earth-type which the native ground-cover—the of the ground-cover here—and the entire was a range for cattle. Dotted about were slaughterhouses, and in of of thousands were here and there by ground-induction which as fences. Ultimately the were by these same to the houses and actually into the where their were slit. Every of a of profit was from their carcasses, and Calhoun had it appalling.
He was not about cattle, but the complete cold-bloodedness of the entire operation him. The same cold-bloodedness was toward the employees who ran the place. Their were sub-marginal. The air of murder. Men for the Texia Company or they did not work. If they did not work they did not eat. If they and ate,—Calhoun see nothing satisfying in being alive on a world like that! His report to Med Service had been biting. He'd been against since.
But a descended, away from the city. It would land not too from the he followed. And it didn't to Calhoun not to help the unknown chutist. He saw a small the chute. He the ground-car as he where the would land.
He was off the twelve-lane and on a road when the was a hundred high. He was across a of olive-green plants that all the way to the when the actually touched ground. There was a wind. The man in the bounced. He didn't know how to the air. The him.
Calhoun ahead, and ran into the chute. He stopped the car and the stopped with it. He got out.
The man in a of cordage. He at it. When Calhoun came up he said suspiciously:
"Have you a knife?"
Calhoun offered a knife, opening its blade. The man at the and himself. There was an case to his harness. He cut at those cords. The case not only came clear, but opened. It out an of new, packed certificates. Calhoun see that the were one thousand and ten thousand credits. The man from the under his and out a blaster.
It was not a service weapon. It was elaborate, a toy. With a at Calhoun he put it in a pocket and up the money. It was an sum, but he packed it back. He up.
"My name is Allison," he said in an voice. "Arthur Allison. I'm much obliged. Now I'll ask you to take me to Maya City."
"No," said Calhoun politely. "I just left there. It's deserted. I'm not going back. There's nobody there."
"But I've bus—" The other man stared. "It's deserted? But that's impossible!"
"Quite," Calhoun, "but it's true. It's abandoned. Uninhabited. Everybody's left it. There's no one there at all."
The man who called himself Allison unbelievingly. He swore. Then he profanely.
But he was not by the news. Which, upon consideration, was itself almost bewildering. But then his shrewd. He looked about him.
"My name is Allison," he repeated, as if there were some of magic in the word. "Arthur Allison. No what's happened, I've some to do here. Where have the people gone? I need to them."
"I need to them too," said Calhoun. "I'll take you with me, if you like."
"You've of me." It was a statement, made.
"Never," said Calhoun politely. "If you're not hurt, you in the car? I'm as as you are to out what's happened. I'm Med Service."
Allison moved toward the car.
"Med Service, eh? I don't think much of the Med Service! You people try to in that are none of your business!"
Calhoun did not answer. The man, the case tightly, through the olive-green plants to the car and in. Murgatroyd said cordially, "Chee-chee!" but Allison viewed him with distaste.
"What's this?"
"He's Murgatroyd," said Calhoun. "He's a tormal. He's Med service personnel."
"I don't like beasts," said Allison coldly.
"He's much more to me than you are," said Calhoun, "if the should come to a test."
Allison at him as if him to cringe. Calhoun did not. Allison every of being an man who his to be and to. When Calhoun he got into the car and a little. Calhoun took his place. The ground-car hummed. It rose on the six of air which took the place of and across the of dark-green plants, the across a number of rows, and a of crushed-down plants where it had moved.
It the again. Calhoun ran the car up on the highway's shoulder, and then checked. He'd noticed something.
He stopped the car and got out. Where the ended, and the surface of the began, there was a space where on another world one would to see green grass.
On this did not grow; but there would be some of self-planted where there was and and moisture. There had been such here, but now there was only a thin, of and foliage. Calhoun to it.
It had a sour, of decay. These were the ground-cover plants of Maya of which Calhoun had read. They had stems, and flowers, and they had tendencies. They were the local which it to for use upon this world.
And they were dead.
Calhoun up and returned to the car. Plants like this were at the of the building, and on another place where there should have been sward. Calhoun had a large of the in a florist's, that had been in a it died. There was a here: ran away from something, and something the death of a particular of weeds.
It did not add up to anything in particular, and wasn't for anything at all. But Calhoun on in a puzzled mood. The of a was in his mind. He couldn't to himself that it was likely, but it was surely no more than most of a beings their homes at a moment's notice.
