The who had appeared at the door said that Professor Mantelish had wanted to be present while his was aboard. If the didn't mind, were about that along.
Mantelish himself and off with the messenger. The door closed. Quillan came to his chair.
"We're moving the later tonight," the Commissioner explained. "Mantelish is along—plus around eight of his equipment. Plus his special U-League guards."
"Oh?" Trigger up the Puya glass. She looked into it. It was empty. "Moving where?" she asked.
"Manon," said the Commissioner. "Tell you about that later."
Every last in Trigger's to p. 71go simultaneously. She settled in the chair, by the of the reaction. She hadn't by now how up she was! She a small sigh. Then she at Quillan.
"Major," she said, "how about a little on that Puya—about half?"
Quillan took of the little refill.
Commissioner Tate said, "By the way, Quillan have a in and to the Engineers now and then. But his job's Space Scout Intelligence."
Trigger nodded. "I'd almost it!" She gave Quillan another smile. She nearly gave 113-A a smile.
"And now," said the Commissioner, "we'll talk more freely. We tell Mantelish just as little as we can. To tell you the truth, Trigger, the is a terrible on an operation like this. I he was a great friend of your father's."
"Yes," she said. "Going over for visits to Mantelish's garden with my father is one of the I remember. I can he's a problem!" She her from one to the other of the two men. "What are you people doing? Looking for Gess Fayle and the key unit?"
Holati Tate said, "That's about it. We're one of a thousand Federation groups to the same job. Each group at its specialties, and the correlated." He paused. "The Federation Council—they're the ones we're for directly—the Council's biggest is the very political p. 72that's involved. They it into a one. They may be right."
"In what way?" Trigger asked.
"Well, that key unit is and lost. Suppose all the other put together don't to how the Old Galactics produced the and got them to operate."
"Somebody would that out soon, wouldn't they?"
"Not necessarily, or probably, according to Mantelish and some other people who know what's happened. There to be too many missing. It might be necessary to a whole new class of first. And that take a centuries."
"Well," Trigger admitted, "I along without the indefinitely."
"Same here," the ungratefully. "Weird beasties! But—let's see. At present there are twelve hundred and fifty-eight worlds to the Federation, aren't there?"
"More or less."
"And the number of confederacies, governments, industrial, financial and combines, power groups, etc. and so on, is something I'd to have to calculate."
"What are you at?" she asked.
"They've all been told we're for a new age, of the science. Practically has it. Now there's doubt."
"Oh," she said. "Of course—practically is going to very unhappy, eh?"
"That," said Commissioner Tate, "is only a little of it."
"Yes, the thing isn't just lost. Somebody's got it."
"Very likely."
Trigger nodded. "Fayle's ship might have got accidentally, of course. But the way he took off he planned to disappear—a crack-up on top of that would be too much of a coincidence. So any one of thousands of in the Hub might be the one that has that now!"
"Including," said Holati, "any one of the two hundred and fourteen restricted worlds. Their of wouldn't have let them into the until the others had been at it a decade or so. They would have been eager...."
There was a little pause. Then Trigger said, "Lordy! The thing set off another of wars—"
"That's a point the Council is about," he said.
"Well, it is a mess. You would have the Federation might have had a Security Chief in on that operation. Right there on Harvest Moon!"
"They did," he said. "It was Fayle."
"Oh! Pretty embarrassing." Trigger was a moment. "Holati, those as valuable as people keep saying? It's all a little to me."
The Commissioner said he'd about it too. "I'm not of a to make an guess. What it to to is that they might. Which would be to a of people to very high for a to of the process—and we know definitely that some people are for it."
"How do you know?"
"We've been a of leads here. Pretty leads so far, but you work with what you can get." He at the table. "We up the lead through 113-A."
Trigger down. The there some from the of her hand. "You know," she said uncomfortably, "old Repulsive moved again while we were talking! Towards my hand." She the hand away.
"I was it," Major Quillan said from the end of the table. "I would have you, but it stopped when it got as as it is now. That was around five minutes ago."
Trigger and gave old Repulsive a pat. "Very character! He to touch. Kitty-cat pleasant! How did you a lead through him?"
"Mantelish it to Maccadon with him, mainly of its to 113. He was he couldn't at what its was. It was just there in a cubicle. So he did with it while he waited for Gess Fayle to up—and League Headquarters around, p. 75hoping to the of report from Mantelish and Fayle that Mantelish they'd already received. They were where Fayle was, too. But they Fayle was Security, so they didn't like to too nosy."
Trigger her head. "Wonderful! So what with 113-A?"
"Mantelish to results with it," the Commissioner said. "One was startling. He'd been trying that business. Nothing until he had finished. Then he touched the plasmoid, and it the whole to him. Apparently it was a dose."
She laughed delightedly. "Good for Repulsive! Stood up for his rights, eh?"
"Mantelish some such anyway. He more with it after that. And then he learned something that should be important. He was visiting another where they had a of which actually moved now and then. He had 113-A in his pocket. The two stopped moving while he was there. They haven't moved since."
"Like the Harvest Moon when they 113?"
"Right. He about that, and then another moving plasmoid. He in to look it over, with 113-A in his pocket again, and it stopped. He did the same thing in one more place and then quit. There aren't that many moving around. Those three are still what their specimens."
She 113-A curiously. "A mite! What Mantelish make of it?"
"He thinks the 112-113 unit a of self-regulating system. The big one activity, the little one it. This 113-A might be a regulator. But it to be more than a spare—which us to that lead we got. A of Mantelish's one night."
"When was that?"
"Some months ago. Before you and I left Manon. The was out, and 113-A had gone along in his pocket as usual. But his two and one of the were killed. The others got away. Gess Fayle's was a by then, and was very nervous. The Feds got there, fast, and dead-brained the raider. They learned just two things. One, he'd been mind-blocked and couldn't have any if they had got him alive. The other item they from his brain was a clear of the of the raid—the professor's here."
"Uh-huh," Trigger said, in thought. She Repulsive lightly. "That would be Fayle and his then. Or somebody who about them. Did they want to kill it or it?"
The Commissioner looked at her. "Grab it, was the dead-brain report. Why?"
"Just wondering. Would make a difference, wouldn't it? Did they try again?"
"There've been five more attempts," he said.
"And what's from that?"
"They want 113-A in a very way. So they need it."
"In with the key unit?" Trigger asked.
"Probably."
"That makes look very much better, doesn't it?"
"Quite a little," he said. "The unit may not work, or may not work satisfactorily, unless 113-A is in the area. Mantelish talks of something he calls influence. Whatever that is, 113-A has it has it."
"So," Trigger said, "they might have two of what wants, and you might have one third. Right here on the table. How many of the later did you catch?"
"All of them," said the Commissioner. "Around forty. We got them dead, we got them alive. It didn't make much difference. They were hands. Very hands, but still just that. Most of them didn't know a thing we use. The ones that did know something were mind-blocked again."
"I thought," Trigger said reflectively, "you someone like that."
"You can, sometimes. If you're very good at it and if you have time enough. We couldn't to wait a year. They died they tell us anything."
There was a pause. Then Trigger asked, "How did you in this, personally?"
"More or less by accident," the Commissioner said. "It was in with our second lead."
"That's me, huh?" she said unhappily.
"Yes."
"Why would anyone want to me? I don't know anything."
He his head. "We haven't out yet. We're we will, in a very days."
"Is that one of the you can't tell me about?"
"I can tell you most of what I know at the moment," said the Commissioner. "Remember the night we stopped off at Evalee on the way in from Manon?"
"Yes," she said. "That big hotel!"
