It was the time of in Ceyce, the White City, of Maccadon, the University World of the Hub.

In the Colonial School's five-mile of and parks, the second student shift was for breakfast, while a larger part of the fourth shift moved at a more toward their bunks. The school's were not much by the hour, but the big was almost for once. Behind the of the range a woman by herself, gun in hand, waiting for the range to select a new of for release.

She was around twenty-four, and in the school's outfit. Tan shirt and knee-length shorts, stockings, soft-soled shoes. Her sun on the railing, and the p. 2dawn wind of shoulder-length, white-silver along her cheeks. She a small, her—the twin-barrelled Denton which citizens of the Hub as a for the and expert only. In like the Colonial School it wasn't often seen.

At the exact the its new of targets, she aware of the toward her from the administration on the right. Startled, she long to identify the car's two occupants, her attention to the of toward her, the pattern for another half-second, the Denton. The little gun its noiseless, of eight times. Six small of in the air. The two up in a and to their huts.

The girl her lip in annoyance, and the gun and her hand left-right at the range to she was finished. Then she to the as it settled slowly to the ground twenty away. Her its critically.

"Fine example you set the students!" she remarked. "Flying right into a gun range!"

Doctor Plemponi, of the Colonial School, soothingly. "Eight years ago, your father me out for the very same thing, p. 3Trigger! Much more abusively, I must say. You know that was my meeting with old Runser Argee, and I—"

"Plemp!" Mihul, Chief of Physical Conditioning, Women's Division, from the seat him. "Watch what you're doing, you ass!"

Confused, Doctor Plemponi to look at her. The the last four to a landing. Mihul groaned. Plemponi apologized. Trigger walked over to them.

"Does he do that often?" she asked interestedly.

"Every other time!" Mihul asserted. She was a tall, lean, of a woman, around forty. She gave Trigger a Plemponi's back. "We keep the on stand-by when we go with Plemp."

"Now then! Now then!" Doctor Plemponi said. "You my attention for a moment, that's all. Now, Trigger, the we're here is that Mihul told me at our you weren't happy at the good old Colonial School. So climb in, if you don't have much else to do, and we'll up to the office and discuss it." He opened the door for her.

"Much else to do!" Trigger gave him a look. "All right, Doctor. We'll up and discuss it."

She for her sun hat, in, closed the door and sat him, the Denton on her thigh.

Plemponi the gun dubiously. "Brushing up in case there's another raid?" he inquired. He out for the stick.

Trigger her head. "Just off hostility, p. 4I guess." She waited till he had the car off the ground in a swoop. "That yesterday—it was a raid?"

"We're almost sure it was," Mihul said her, "though I did some talk they might have been after those two top-secret in your Project."

"That's not very likely," Trigger remarked. "The were a mile away from where they should have come if the were what they wanted. And from what I saw of them, they weren't nearly a big for a job of that kind."

"I so, too," Mihul said. "They were professionals, in any case. I got a of some of their equipment. Knockout guns—foggers—and that was a fast car!"

"Very fast car," Trigger agreed. "It's what me when I saw them come in."

"They also," said Mihul, "had a high-speed waiting for them in the hills. Two more men in it. The them, too." She added, "They were grabbers, all right!"

"Anything to they were after?" Trigger asked.

"No," Mihul said. "Too many possibilities. Twenty or more of the students in that area at the time had to class as bait. The won't talk to admit they were off about the raid. Which was obvious. The way they up out of and closed in on those boys was a to see!"

"I," Trigger admitted, "didn't see it. When that car in, I a to the nearest of students and a rock. By the time I a look, the had them."

"You very good sense," Plemponi told her earnestly. "I they those thugs! Grabbing's a business."

"That large object at you," Mihul calmly, "is another aircar. In this it has the right of way. You do not have the right of way. Got all that, Plemp?"

"Are you sure?" Doctor Plemponi asked her bewilderedly. "Confound it! I shall my siren."

He did. Trigger winced. "There!" Plemponi said as the other driver off in fright.

Trigger told herself to relax. Aircars were so nearly accident-proof that Plemponi couldn't do more than up traffic in one. "Have there been other in the area since I left?" she asked, as he up out of the and toward the of his office.

"That was just under four years ago, wasn't it?" Mihul said. "No, you were still with us when we had the last one.... Six years back. Remember?"

Trigger did. Two students had been up on that occasion—sons of some Federation official. The had a clean getaway, and it had been months later she the boys had been safely.

Plemponi to a but p. 6landing on the office balcony. He gave Trigger a self-satisfied look. "See?" he said tersely. "Let's go in, ladies. Had yet, Trigger?"

Trigger had a half-hour earlier, but she a cup of coffee. Mihul, all athlete, declined. She over to Plemponi's and against it, arms across her chest, on Trigger. With her length of body, Mihul sometimes Trigger of a ferret, but the was a one and there was around the mouth. Even in Trigger's days, she and Mihul had been good friends.

Doctor Plemponi a from a chef, took a chair across from Trigger, sat with the on his knees, himself, and to eat and talk simultaneously.

"Before we go into that very you to Mihul yesterday," he said, "I wish you'd let me point out a things."

Trigger nodded. "Please do."

"You, Trigger," Plemponi told her, "are an guest here at the Colonial School. You're the of our late friend and Runser Argee. You were one of our star pupils—not just as a small-arms either. And now you're the and of the famous Precolonial Commissioner Holati Tate—which makes you almost a participant in what may well turn out to be the scientific event of the p. 7century.... I'm referring, of course," Plemponi added, "to Tate's of the Old Galactic plasmoids."

"Of course," Trigger. "And what is all this leading up to, Plemp?"

He a piece of toast at her. "No. Don't interrupt! I still have to point out that of the you under Tate, you've been sent here on for the Precolonial Department to the Commissioner and Professor Mantelish in the University League's Plasmoid Project. That means you're a person, Trigger! Mantelish, for all his idiosyncrasies, is the in the League. And the Plasmoid Project here at the is without question the League's most undertaking."

"So I've been told," said Trigger. "That's why I want to out what's gone with it."

"In a moment," Plemponi said. "In a moment." He his napkin, his carefully. "Now I've mentioned all this to make it very, very clear that we'll do anything we can to keep you satisfied. We're to have you with us. We are honored!" He at her. "Right?"

Trigger smiled. "If you say so. And thanks very much for all the compliments, Doctor. But now let's to business."

Plemponi over at Mihul and looked evasive. "That being?" he asked.

"You know," Trigger said. "But I'll put it into questions if you like. Where's Commissioner Tate?"

"I don't know."

"Where is Mantelish?"

He his head. "I don't know that either." He to look unhappy.

"Oh?" said Trigger. "Who know then?"

"I'm not allowed to tell you," Doctor Plemponi said firmly.

Trigger an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Federation security," Plemponi said, frowning. He added, "I wasn't to tell you that either, but what I do?"

"Federation security? Because of the plasmoids?"

"Yes.... Well.... I'd—I don't know."

Trigger sighed. "Is it just me you're not to tell these to?"

"No, no, no," Plemponi said hastily. "Nobody. I'm not to admit to anyone that I know anything of the of Holati Tate or Professor Mantelish."

"Fibber!" Trigger said quietly. "So you know!"

Plemponi looked at Mihul. She was grinning. "My are sealed, Trigger! I can't help it. Please me."

"Let me it up then," Trigger said, the arm of her chair with a tip. "Eight ago I off my job in the Manon System and sent here to the of this Plasmoid Project. The only I took on the job, as a temporary assignment, was that p. 9Commissioner Tate me it was to him to have me do it. I let him talk me into doing it under the name of Ruya Farn and"—she up and touched the of her head—"and to my hair. For no that I discover! He said the U-League had it."

Doctor Plemponi coughed. "Well, you know, Trigger, how the League is to personal notoriety."

The up again. "Notoriety?"

"Not in the sense!" Plemponi said hastily. "But your name has much more than you may believe. The news mentioned you in their reports on Harvest Moon and the Commissioner. Didn't they, Mihul?"

Mihul nodded. "You good copy, kid! We saw you in the any number of times."

"Well, maybe," Trigger said. "The and touches still don't make much to me. But let's them and go on.

"When we here, I manage to see Mantelish just once to try to out what his will be. He's about them. Commissioner Tate is in and out of the Project—usually out. He's also vague. About everything. Three ago today I'm told he's gone. Nobody here can, or will, tell me where he's gone or how he can be contacted. The same thing in the Maccadon Precol office. Same thing at the Evalee Home office. Same thing at the U-League—any office. Then I try to Mantelish. I'm p. 10he's with Tate! The two of them have left word I'm to on."

She spread her hands. "Carry on with what? I've done all I can do until I from the people this very urgent and project! Mantelish doesn't to have a second in command...."

Plemponi nodded. "I was told he hadn't his Project yet."

"Except," said Trigger, "for that little of Junior Scientists who keep themselves locked in with the plasmoids. They know less than nothing and would be too to tell me that if I asked them."

Plemponi looked for a moment. "The last sentence—" He himself. "Well, let's not quibble. Go on."

Trigger said, "That's it. Holati didn't need me on this job to with. There's nothing about the aspects. Unless something to happen—and soon—there's no for me to here."

"Couldn't you," Plemponi suggested, "regard this as a of well-earned little vacation?"

"I've to it as that. Holati on me that one of us had to in the area of the Project at all times, so I haven't been able to the grounds. I've up with my reading, and Mihul has put me through two of her tune-up courses. But the point is that I'm not on vacation. I don't Precol would that any of my present come under the of work!"

There was a silence. Plemponi at his empty tray, said, "Excuse me," got up and walked over to the with the tray.

"Wrong slot," Trigger told him.

He looked back. "Eh?"

"You want to put it in the disposal, don't you?"

"Thanks," Plemponi said absently. "Always doing that. Confusing them...." He the where it belonged, his hands into the chef's and them around, then came back, still looking absent-minded, and stopped Trigger's chair. He her for a moment.

"Commissioner Tate gave me a message for you," he said suddenly.

Trigger's slightly. "When?"

"The day after he left." Plemponi a hand. "Now wait! You'll see how it was. He called in and said, and I quote, 'Plemp, you don't much of a at from Trigger, so I'll give you no to keep. If this we're on won't let us to the Project in the next of weeks, she'll restless. When she to complain—but no earlier—just tell her there are why I can't her at present, or let her know what I'm doing, and that I will her as soon as I possibly can.' End of quote."

"That was all?" asked Trigger.

"Yes."

"He didn't say a thing about how long this might continue?"

"No. I've you the message word for word. My memory is excellent, Trigger."

"So it be more weeks? Or months?"

"Yes. Possibly. I imagine...." Plemponi had to perspire.

"Plemp," said Trigger, "will you give Holati a message from me?"

"Gladly!" said Plemponi. "What—oh, oh!" He flushed.

"Right," said Trigger. "You can him. I so."

Doctor Plemponi looked reproachful. "That was unfair, Trigger! You're quick-witted."

Trigger shrugged. "I can't see any for all this mystery, that's all." She up. "Anyway, here's the message. Tell him that unless somebody—rather promptly—gives me a good for around here, I'll ask Precol to transfer me to the Manon job."

Plemponi tut-tutted gloomily. "Trigger," he said, "I'll do my best about the message. But otherwise—"

She at him. "I know," she said, "your are sealed. Sorry if I've you, Plemp. But I'm just a Precol employee, after all. If I'm to waste their time, I'd like to know at least why it's necessary."

Plemponi her walk out of the room and off the hall. In his with approval.

"Lovely little figure, hasn't she?" he said to Mihul. He in the air with one hand, more or less ones with the other. "That of an up-and-sideways when she walks."

"Uh-huh," said Mihul. "Old goats."

"Eh?" said Doctor Plemponi.

"I you Trigger's with Mantelish."

Plemponi sat at his desk. "You shouldn't eavesdrop, Mihul," he said severely. "I'd that message to Tate, I suppose. She meant what she said, don't you think?"

"Every of it," said Mihul.

"Tate me she might very difficult about this time. She's too conscientious, I feel."

"She also," said Mihul, "has a boy friend in the Manon System. They've been since they through the here together."

"Ought to married then," Plemponi said. He shuddered. "My blood cold every time I think of how close those got to her yesterday!"

Mihul shrugged. "Relax! They had a chance. The Tate has her are the fastest-moving I saw go into action."

"That," Plemponi said reflectively, "doesn't much like our Maccadon police."

"I don't think they are. Imported of some kind, for my money. Anyway, if someone wants to up Trigger Argee here, he'd come in with a battleship."

Plemponi across the at the sky about the quadrangle.

"The I got from Holati Tate," he said, "is that somebody might."