There was a portal at the end of the Doctor Plemponi's office. Mihul into the portal, the number of her personal quarters, waited till the overhead light green a later, and out into another seventeen Plemponi's office and a little over a mile and a away from it.
Mihul the hall, into her apartment, locked the door her and a button. In her bedroom, she opened a safe and out a high-powered transmitter. She the to active.
"Yes?" said a voice.
"Mihul here," said Mihul. "Quillan or the Commissioner...."
"Quillan here," the said a later in a different voice, a male one. "Go ahead, doll."
Mihul grunted. "I'm calling," she said, "because I that you boys had take some action in the Argee matter."
"Oh?" said the voice. "What of action?"
"How the would I know? I'm just telling you I can't be for her here much longer."
"Has something happened?" Quillan asked quickly.
"If you has somebody taken another at her, no. But she's all up to start herself. She isn't going to do much waiting either."
Quillan said thoughtfully, "Hasn't she been that way for a while?"
"Not like she's been the last days." Mihul hesitated. "Would it be against security if you told me something has to her?"
"Happened to her?" Quillan cautiously.
"To her mind."
"What makes you think so?"
Mihul at the transmitter.
"Trigger always had a temper," she said. "She was always obstinate. She was always an and to for her own and anyone else's. But she used to good sense. She's got one of the I.Q.s we through this place. The way she's acting now doesn't look too rational."
"How would she have earlier?" Quillan asked.
Mihul considered. "She would have been very p. 16annoyed with Commissioner Tate," she said. "I don't her for that—I'd be, too, in the circumstances. When he got back, she'd have wanted a for what has been going on. If she didn't one that satisfied her, she'd have quit. But she would have waited till he got back. Why not, after all?"
"You don't think she's going to wait now?"
"I do not," Mihul said. "She's him a of through Plemponi. Communicate-or-else, in effect. Frankly, I wouldn't to she'll around to the answer."
"Hm.... What do you she'll do?"
"Take off," Mihul said. "One way or the other."
"Ungh," Quillan said disgustedly. "You make it like the chick's got built-in space drives. You can stop her, can't you?"
"Certainly I can stop her," Mihul said. "If I can lock her in her room and on her to make sure she doesn't by the window. But 'unobtrusively?' You're the one who she isn't to know she's being watched."
"True," Quillan said promptly. "I spoke like a loon, Mihul."
"True, Major Quillan, sir," said Mihul. "Now try again."
The was a seconds. "Could you her for three days?" he asked.
"I not," said Mihul. "I couldn't her another three hours."
"As as that?"
"Yes," said Mihul. "As as that. She was herself with Plemponi. But I've been her in the physical workouts. I've it to her as as I could, but there's a limit to what you can do that way. She's herself in very good shape."
"One of the best, I've been told," said Quillan.
"Condition, I meant," said Mihul. "Anyway, she's right now. Any more of it would just make her edgier. You know how it goes."
"Uh-huh," he said. "Fighter nerves."
"Same deal," Mihul agreed.
There was a pause. "How about a on all Colonial exits?" he suggested.
"Can you send me an army?"
"No."
"Then it. She was a student here, remember? Last year a of our students the out and left it in the garden of the of Ceyce, just for laughs. Too many exits. And Trigger was a monkey than most that way, when she like it. She'll out of here she wants to."
"It's those portal systems!" said Quillan, with feeling. "Most that the profession." He sighed. "You win, Mihul! The Commissioner isn't in at the moment. But he in or not, I'll have someone over today to her up. Matter of fact, I'll come along myself."
"Good for you, boy!" Mihul said relievedly. "Did you anything out of yesterday's grabbers?"
"A little. 'Get her, don't her' were their instructions. Otherwise it was like with those other slobs. A in the where the should be. But at least we know for sure now that someone is after Argee. The price was of interesting."
"What was it?"
"Flat credits."
Mihul whistled. "Poor Trigger!"
"Well, nobody's very likely to earn the money."
"I not. She's a good kid. All right, Major. Signing off now."
"Hold on a minute," said Quillan. "You asked a while ago if the girl had gone ta-ta."
"So I did," Mihul said, surprised. "You didn't say. I it was against security."
"It is," Quillan admitted. "Everything to be, right now. I've up trying to keep up with that. Anyway—I don't know that she has. Neither the Commissioner. But he's worried. And Argee has a date she doesn't know about with the Psychology Service, four days from now."
"The eggheads?" Mihul was startled. "What do they want with her?"
"You know," Quillan reflectively, "that's odd! They didn't think to tell me."
"Why are you me know?" Mihul asked.
"You'll out, doll," he said.
The U-League against the p. 19opposite the portal to attention as it opened. Trigger out. He gave her a of a salute.
"Good morning, Miss Farn."
"Morning," Trigger said. She him a smile. "Did the in?"
"Just twenty minutes ago."
She nodded, again and walked past him to her office. She always got along with of almost any description, and these League boys were and polite. They were also, she'd noticed, a group.
She locked the office door her—part of the Plasmoid Project's security precautions—went over to her file and it empty. Which meant that had come in was purely and already being by her office staff. Later in the day she might a to Ruya Farn's on a dozen and checks. Big job! Trigger sat at her desk.
She there a minute or two, her teeth with her thumbnail. The Honorable Precolonial Commissioner Tate, else might be said of him, was one of the little she'd come across. He saw some for her here, and uninformed. The question was what the be.
Security.... Trigger her nose. Security didn't a thing. Everybody and with the Old Galactic had been up in Federation security p. 20since the day the was announced. And she'd been in the middle of the operations them right along. Why should Holati Tate have on her now? When old Plemponi him.
It was more than a little annoying....
Trigger shrugged, into a and took out a small solidopic. She set it on the and it moodily.
The of an almost man looked at her. Startling dark-blue eyes; a chin, hair. There was a of white teeth the quick, warm which always a in her.
She and Brule Inger had been the nearest thing to for the last two and a years, since Precol sent them out together to its project on Manon Planet. They'd been that, while they were still the Colonial School. But now she was here, here indefinitely—unless she did something about it—and Brule was on Manon Planet. By the very ships the Manon System was a good nine days away. For the Grand Commerce or the ordinary it was a solid two-months' run. Manon was a long way away!
It was almost a month since she'd from Brule. She make up another personal tape to him today if she like it. He would it in fourteen days or so a Federation packet. But p. 21she'd already sent him three without reply. Brule wasn't at all good at long love-making, and she didn't him much. She was a little herself when it came to her personal into a tape. And—because of security again—there was very little else she into it. She couldn't let Brule know just where she was.
She put the in its drawer, for one of the bank of on the right of the and pushed it down. A up in of her, a news to the of headlines.
Trigger over the headlines, while a slowly here and there and were replaced by more developments. Under the "Science" a great to be going on, as usual, in with around the Hub.
She in the heading, through the item that appeared. Essentially it was a of reports on Hubwide that nobody any progress in what the Old Galactic tick. Which, so as Trigger knew, was true. Other rumors, ones, were that the five hundred or so scientific groups to had been by the Federation's University League actually had information, but were it to themselves.
The through a of the learned opinions and most p. 22obtained, then them to the that a might be to an engine which appeared to nothing but an energy source. Or more correctly—assuming it might have an as yet energy source—a button. One group to have the to it by the Federation, producing a from the Old Galactic model only by the that it had—quite predictably—fallen hours. But didn't apart. The study had no of deterioration. A still from time to time; some had been to move slightly. But none be to operate. It was all very puzzling!
It was very puzzling, Trigger conceded. Back in the Manon System, when they had been discovered, the were with high on the protein-collecting station which the Old Galactics appeared to have abandoned, or about, some hundreds of centuries ago. It was only when entered the and off its operations that the stopped working—and then, when the which appeared to have them going were closed again, they had stopped.
Personally, Trigger couldn't have less if they did move. It was that old Holati Tate had an almost out of his first-discovery to the things, p. 23she was very of the Commissioner when he wasn't being irritating. But in some way she the themselves and the idea of unlimited plastic life which they appalling. However, she was in a there. Practically else to that were the biggest since the of Eve.
She the presently to its local-news setting and in the Manon System's number. Keeping on what was going on out there had a private little of late. Occasionally she up to Brule Inger, who as Precol's official and man in the system. He was very popular with the Hub citizens who the long out to the Manon—some on a view of the of Old Galactic science, and a great many more on an early in the of Manon Planet, which was the point where its would shift from Precol Project to Federation Territory, opening it to all comers.
Today there was no news about Brule. Grand Commerce had opened its and center on Manon, not ten miles from the Precol Headquarters where Trigger had been working. The which was being about the Old Galactic was very nearly completed. The permanent Hub population on Manon Planet had just passed the forty-three thousand mark. There had been, Trigger p. 24recalled, a nostalgically, eight hundred Precol employees, and not another being, on that world in the days Holati Tate his discovery.
She was just the into the when the office ComWeb gave with a ping. She it on.
"Hi, Rak!" she said cheerily. "Anything new?"
The bony-faced man looking out at her the black of a U-League Junior Scientist. His was worried.
He said, "I there is, Miss Farn." Rak was the group leader of the thirty-four Junior Scientists the League had in the Project. Like all the Juniors, he took his very seriously. "Unfortunately it's nothing I can discuss over a communicator. Would it be possible for you to come over and meet with us the day?"
"That," Trigger stated, "was a question, Rak! Want me over right now?"
He grinned. "Thanks, Miss Farn! In twenty minutes then? I'll my together and we can meet in the little room off the Exhibition Hall."
Trigger nodded. "I'll be around the Hall. Just send a out to me when you're ready."
