Calhoun coldly. They were what had been the small city on the highway. They would go on past now-starlit of plants native to Maya, many places where trucks with the plants up to the and for the which use of them. The ran for of miles along the highway's length. They out the horizon,—perhaps of miles in that direction, too. There were thousands upon thousands of square miles to the of the dark-green which the materials for Maya's space exports. Some hundred-odd miles ahead, the small town of Tenochitlan in the light of the star-cluster. Beyond that, more and Maya City. Beyond that—
Calhoun that the to make the would be Maya City, in the the photograph in the showed. A large into those for a limited only.
A ground-inductor always at a right to the which was its source. It be adjusted—the was to focusing—to come into being at any desired, and the be changed. To drive the people of Maya City eastward, the of a fence—about which they would know nothing; it would be totally and mysterious—the of the would need to be west of the people to be driven. Logically, it would in the mountains. Practically, it would be concealed. Drawing on power to do its work, there would be no large power needed to give it the six it required. It should be easy to any quick or easy discovery. Hunting it out might of searching.
But the people the end of the couldn't wait. They had no food, and to ground-water by men with their hands would not be adequate. The had to be cut off immediately—while the of power had to be continued.
Calhoun an noise. Phrasing the thing that needed to be done was a of how to do it. Simple! He'd need the two engineers, of course. But that would be the trick....
He on at a hundred thirty miles an hour with his set wrily. The three other came him. Murgatroyd the way ahead. Mile after mile, half-minute after half-minute, the the cars. Murgatroyd bored. He said, "Chee!" in a fashion and to up Allison and Calhoun. There wasn't room. He over the seat-back. He moved about, there. There were sounds. He settled down. Presently there was silence. Undoubtedly he had his across his nose and gone off to sleep.
Allison spoke suddenly. He'd had time to think, but he had no in of thinking.
"How much money have you got?" he asked.
"Not much," said Calhoun. "Why?"
"I—haven't done anything illegal," said Allison, with an air of confidence, "but I be put to some if you were to me others of what you've me personally. You to think that I planned a act. That the action I know of—the project I'd of—that it became—that it got out of hand is likely. But I am in the clear. I did nothing in which I did not have the of counsel. I am legally unassailable. My lawyers—"
"That's none of my business," Calhoun told him. "I'm a medical man. I here in the middle of what to be a public health situation. I to see what had happened. I've out. I still haven't the answer,—not the whole answer anyway. But the population of Maya is in a of some privation, not to say danger. I to end it. But I've nothing to do with anybody's or of or or anything else."
Allison swallowed. Then he said with confidence:
"But you me inconvenience. I would it if you would—would—"
"Cover up what you've done?" asked Calhoun.
"No! I've done nothing wrong. But you use discretion. I by to complete some I'd months ago. I will go through with them. I will on the next ship. That's perfectly open and above board. Strictly business. But you make a—an public image of me. Yet I have done nothing any other man wouldn't do! I did to know of a project—"
"I think," said Calhoun without heat, "that you sent men here with a cattle-fence device from Texia to the people on Maya. They wouldn't know what was going on. They'd be scared; they'd want to away. So you'd be able to up all the for the of peanuts. I can't prove that," he conceded, "but that's my opinion. But you want me not to it. Is that right?"
"Exactly!" said Allison. He'd been to the core, but he managed the and the air of a man of an with candor. "I you you are mistaken. You agree that you can't prove your suspicions. If you can't prove them, you shouldn't them. That is ethics. You agree to that!"
Calhoun looked at him curiously.
"Are you waiting for me to tell you my price?"
"I'm waiting," said Allison reprovingly, "for you to agree not to me embarrassment. I won't be ungrateful. After all, I'm a person of some influence. I do a great to your benefit. I'd be glad—"
"Are you around to at a price I'll take?" asked Calhoun with the same air of curiosity.
He much more than indignant, and much more than curious. Allison suddenly. Calhoun didn't appear to be bribable. But Allison desperation.
"If you want to put it that way—yes," he said harshly. "You can name your own figure. I it!"
"I won't say a word about you," said Calhoun. "I won't need to. The who're your will do all the talking that's necessary. Things all fit together,—except for one item. They've been into place all the while we've been this road."
"I said you can name your own figure!" Allison's voice was shrill. "I it! Any figure! Any!"
Calhoun shrugged.
"What would a Med Ship man do with money? Forget it!"
He on. The to Tenochitlan appeared. Calhoun past it. The other with the road through the town appeared. He left it behind.
Allison's teeth again.
The of Maya City to appear, some twenty minutes later. Calhoun and the other closed up. He opened a window and called:
"We want to go to the landing-grid first. Somebody lead the way!"
A car past and the to a from the now-elevated road, and through dark streets, of which some were narrow and winding, and came out where the landing-grid rose skyward. At the its looked and in the starlight, but the higher looked like against the stars.
They to the building. Calhoun got out. Murgatroyd out after him, to his fur. He himself, and a ten-thousand-credit certificate to the ground. Murgatroyd had a soft place for sleeping out of the of Allison's case. It was the most if not the most sleeping a had. Allison sat still as if numbed. He did not up the certificate.
"I need you two men," said Calhoun. Then he said to the others, "I only out something on the way here. I'd we might have to take some action, come daybreak. But now I it. I do suggest, though, that you turn off the car and set to do some if up. I don't know they will or not."
He the way inside. He on lights. He to the place where the amount of power actually being used of the amount available. Those now an small power drain, that the of a on the grid. But the were dark and empty of people. The and forth, rhythmically. Every two the for power up by six kilowatts, approximately. The for a second, and stopped. For a second and a the power in use was by six kilowatts. During this period only and and on the power for energy. Then the six-million-kilowatt came again for a second.
"The fence," said Calhoun, "works for a second out of every two seconds. It's or it would animals that into it. Or people. Being intermittent, it them out instead. There'll be and parts for here, in case something needs repair. I want you to make something new."
The two asked questions.
"We need," said Calhoun, "an that will cut off the power for the half-second the ground-induction is to be on. Then it should turn on the power for the second and a the is to be off. That will stop the cattle-fence effect, and I think a ground car should be able to work with power that's available for three half-seconds out of four."
The men at him. Then they and set to work. Calhoun exploring. He a box in a with three very sandwiches in it. He offered them around.
It appeared that nobody wanted to eat while their families—at the end of the highway—were still hungry.
The men called on the two to help something. They to Calhoun that they were making a which would to any six-million-kilowatt demand, no what time was involved. A in the of the cattle-fence cycle wouldn't it on.
"That's fine!" said Calhoun. "I wouldn't have of that!"
He into a sandwich and outside. Allison sat limply, despairingly, in his seat in the car.
"The is going off," said Calhoun without triumph. "The people of the city will to here around sunrise."
"I—I did nothing legally wrong!" said Allison, dry-throated. "Nothing! They'd have to prove that I what the—consequences of the project would be. That couldn't be proved! It couldn't! So I've done nothing legally wrong...."
Calhoun inside, that the doctor who was also tennis champion, and the who'd come to help him, were on the city and the of the and all other places from which trouble might come.
There was a of in the power-control room. The power itself did not pass through these instruments, but here which the world with power. And one of the had been modified. When the cattle-fence closed its circuit, the power off. When the ground-inductor off, the power on. There was no longer a across the leading to the east. It was more than that ground on for one and a out of every two. They might jerkily, but they would run.
Half an hour later, the amount of power from the to and gradually. It only that were to move.
Forty-five minutes later still, Calhoun outside. He out. The two men on off into the city. Something moved there. It was a ground-car, slowly and without lights. Calhoun said undisturbedly:
"Whoever was the out their wasn't working. Their lights flickered, too. They came to see what was the at the landing-grid. But they've the windows. Got your handy?"
But the car and away. Calhoun only shrugged.
"They haven't a prayer," he said. "We'll take over their as soon as it's light. It'll be too big to destroy, and there'll be and such to identify them as the men who ran it. And they're not natives. When the police start to look for the who were where the cattle-fence was set up.... They can go into the where there's nothing to eat, or they can give themselves up."
He moved toward the door of the once more. Allison said desperately:
"They'll have their equipment. You'll be able to it!"
Calhoun his in the starlight.
"Anything that can can spot it in minutes. Even on the ground one can walk almost to it. You see, something they didn't count on. That's why they've left it on at full power. The earlier, of the were low-power. Annoying, to start with, and the second time, and maybe painful the third. But the last time it was full power."
He shrugged. He didn't like a long oration. But it was obvious. Something had killed the plants of a of which small were that Earth-type grasses. The ground-cover plants—and the larger ones, like the one Calhoun had in a florist's shop which had had to be in a cage—the ground-cover plants had and and blossoms. They were cannibals. They move their to reach, and their to enclose, and their flowers to other plants, small animals. The point, though, was that they had some limited power of motion. Earth-style and plants had tissues. The local ground-cover plants had them too. And the cattle-fence those spasmodically. Powerfully. Violently. Repeatedly. Until they died of exhaustion. The full-power cattle-fence had Mayan ground-cover plants all the way to the end of the east-bound highway. And inevitably—and very conveniently—also up to the exact spot where the cattle-fence had to be projected. There would be an arrow-shaped of the wiped-out ground-cover plants where the cattle-field had been projected. It would narrow to a point which pointed to the cattle-fence projector.
"Your friends," said Calhoun, "will give themselves up and ask for mercy. There's not much else they can do."
Then he said:
"They might it. D'you know, there's an of the fence. It kills the plants that have Earth-type from here. Wheat can be here now, and as much as the people please. It should make this a planet, not having to all its bread."
The ground of the of Maya City did to arrive at sunrise. Within an hour after daybreak, very the and it off.
By there was still some anger on the of the people of Maya, but there'd been little or no damage, and life took up its normal again. Murgatroyd the that to normal. For him it was normal to be and when the Med Ship Esclipus Twenty touched ground. It was normal for him to move in society, and to drink coffee with great gusto.
And while Murgatroyd moved in society, himself hugely, Calhoun about his business. Which, of course, was with health officials, such as they important, and telling them about the most in medical science.
What else was a Med Ship man for?
