The Precol on Manon Planet was still in the spot where Trigger had left it, looking unchanged; but else in the area to have been moved, improved, or taken away entirely, and had appeared. In the screens of Commissioner Tate's Precol offices, Trigger see the new metropolitan-sized on which the Dawn City had set that morning, and the of the shopping and center, which had been opened here by Grand Commerce in its for a cut of salaries. The salaries weren't either.
Ten miles away on the other of Headquarters dome, new of were up daily. At this morning's count they fifty-two thousand people. The Hub's p. 175major and of Federation government had a solid on Manon.
Trigger her as Holati Tate came into the office. He closed the door him.
"How's the little doing?" he asked.
"Still the goop," Trigger said. She Mantelish's small thumbs and fingers, its in a bowl full of something which Mantelish to be for plasmoids, or at least for this one. Its and against her palms. "The level of the going down," she added.
"Good," said Holati. He a chair up to the table and sat opposite her. He looked at 113-A.
"You think this thing me—personally?" Trigger inquired.
Her said, "It's eating, isn't it? And moving. There were a of days you got here when it looked to me."
"Hard to believe," Trigger observed, "that a of leech-looking thing people."
"This one can. Do you any while it?"
"Sensations?" She considered. "Nothing particular. It's just like I said the other time—little Repulsive is to feel."
"For you," he said. "I didn't tell you everything."
"You do," Trigger remarked.
"I'll tell you now," said Holati. "The day after we left, when it started acting very and then very droopy, Mantelish said it might be missing the female touch it had got from you. He was being facetious, I think. But I couldn't see any not to try it, so I called in your and had her at the table where the thing was lying."
"Yes?"
"Well, it came up to her, 'Mama!' Not actually, of course. Then it touched her hand and in horror."
Trigger an eyebrow.
"It looked like it," he insisted. "We all on it. So then she out and touched it. Then she in horror."
"Why?"
"She said it had her a very electric jolt. Apparently like the one it gave Mantelish."
Trigger at Repulsive. "Gee, thanks for me it, Holati! It to have stopped now, by the way. Or it does. Doesn't look much if any, it?"
The Commissioner looked. "No," he said. "And if you it, you'd it still an exact three and a pounds. Mantelish the thing any food directly into energy."
"Then it should be able to produce a very at the moment," Trigger commented. "Now, what do I do with Repulsive?"
Holati took a from the table and spread it out. "Absorbent material," he said. "Lay it on that and just let it dry. That's what we used to do."
Trigger her head. "Next thing, I'll be its diapers!"
"It isn't that bad," the Commissioner said. "Anyway, you will baby, won't you?"
"I I have to." She the on the towel, her hands and from it. "What if it on the floor?"
"Nothing," Holati said. "It just moves on in the direction it was going. Pretty hard to those things."
"In that case," Trigger said, "let's check out its now."
The Commissioner took Repulsive's out of a safe and it to her. Its was that of a modern woman's handbag with a strap. It had an setting which would its weight, with the inside, to nine if Trigger wanted it that way. It also had a lock, unmarked, invisible, the of which Trigger already had memorized. Without the settings, a man using a high-powered might have opened the handbag in around nine hours. A very special job.
Trigger ran through the settings, opened the and inside. "Rather cramped," she observed.
"Not for one of them. We needed room for the gadgetry."
"Yes," she said. "Subspace rotation." She her head. "Is that another Space Scout invention?"
"No," said Holati. "They it from Subspace Engineers. Engineers don't know we have it yet. Far as I know, nobody else has got it from them. Go ahead—give it a try."
"I was going to." Trigger the shut, the over her and straight, left hand closed over the of the object. She the of her thumb and the of her middle to the and to apply pressure. Then she started. Handbag and had vanished.
"Feels odd!" She smiled. "And to it back, I just have to be here—the same place—and say those words."
He nodded. "Want to try that now?"
Trigger her left hand through the air her. "What happens," she asked, "if the thing where my hand to be?"
"It won't surface if there's anything than a in the way. That's one the Sub Engineers haven't about yet."
"Well...." She around, up a plastic ruler from the her, and moved p. 179back a step. She the ruler's about in the area where the handbag had been.
"Come, Fido!" she said.
Nothing happened. She the ruler back.
"Come, Fido!"
Handbag and in mid-air and to the floor.
"Convinced?" Holati asked. He up the handbag and gave it to her.
"It to work. How long will that little last if it's left in like that?"
He shrugged. "Indefinitely, probably. They're tough. We know that twenty-four hours at a won't it in the least, so we've set that as the limit it's to in emergencies."
"And you—and one other person I'm not to know about, but who isn't near here—can also it back?"
"Yes. If we know the place from which it's been rotated. So the agreement is that—again in emergencies—it will be only from one of the six points and to all three of us."
Trigger nodded. She opened the and over to the table where the still on its towel. It was by now. She it up.
"You're a of trouble, Repulsive!" she told it. "But these people think you must be it." She it into the container, and it to inside. Trigger closed the handbag, it to its normal p. 180weight, the over her left shoulder. "And now," she inquired, "what am I to do with the I keep in a purse?"
"You'll be in Precol while you're here. We've had a special for you. Extra pockets."
Trigger sighed.
"Oh, they're and convenient," he her. "We with the girls on that."
"I'll bet!" she said. "Did they the too?"
"Sure. Porgee is a big thing all over the Hub at the moment. Among the ladies anyway. Shows you're the sort, or something like that. I what they said. Want to start it?"
"Hand it over," Trigger said resignedly. "I did see a on the ship. Might as well people used to I've into a sniffer."
Holati to the safe and took out a pouch, the length of his hand but narrower. He gave it to her. It appeared to be of gold thread; one was with pearls, the opposite surface was plain. Trigger the plain against the cloth of her skirt, just the right hip, and let go. It there. She her right leg out to the and the pouch.
"Doesn't look too bad," she conceded. "That's in the top section?"
"The article. Close to nine hundred and fifty worth."
"Suppose somebody wants to borrow a sniff? Wouldn't be good to have them around the very much!"
"They can't," said the Commissioner. "That's why we it porgee. When you a supply, it has to be to your chemistry, exactly. That's mainly what makes it expensive. Try using someone else's, and it'll you across the room."
"Better this to my then. I might have to take a now and then to make it look right."
"We've already done that," he said.
"Good," said Trigger. "Now let's see!" She up, left hand closed around the of the purse, right hand at her side. Her the office briefly. "Some object around here you don't particularly value?" she asked. "Something largish?"
"Several," the Commissioner said. He around. "That flower pot in the is one. Why?"
"Just practicing," said Trigger. She to the flower pot. "That will do. Now—here I come along, of nothing." She started walking toward the flower pot. "Then, suddenly, in of me, there a snatcher."
She stopped in mid-stride. Handbag and vanished, as her right hand the p. 182pouch. The Denton into her palm. The flower pot and apart.
"Golly!" she said, startled. "Come, Fido!" Handbag and and she out and the strap. She looked around at Commissioner Tate.
"Sorry about your pot, Holati. I was just going to shake it up a little. I you people had been my gun. I keep it to myself when I'm it," she added pointedly.
"Perfectly all right about the pot," the Commissioner said. "I should have you. Otherwise, I'd say all you'd need is a moment to see them coming."
Trigger the Denton to its setting and it the which had appeared along the of the pouch. She ran thumb and along the length of the slit, and the was sealed again.
"That's the part that's me," she admitted.
When Trigger presented herself at Commissioner Tate's personal early that evening, she him alone.
"Sit down," he said. "I've been trying to of Mantelish for the past hour. He's over on the other of the again."
Trigger sat and an eyebrow. "Should he be?"
"I don't think so," said Holati. "But I've been on that. He's still the best man the Federation has on the p. 183problems, so I'm not to with his any more than I can is necessary. It's all right. Those U-League of his aren't a group."
"If they with the boys the League had the Plasmoid Project, they should be just about tops," Trigger said.
"The Space Scouts thank you for those words," the Commissioner told her. "Those weren't League guards. When it came to who was to keep an on you, I everybody."
She smiled. "I might have it. What's there for the to be on the other of Manon?"
"He's for some he calls wild plasmoids."
"Wild plasmoids?"
"Uh-huh. His idea is that some of the the Old Galactics were using on Manon might have got away from them, or just been left around, so to speak, and have till now. He thinks they might be themselves. He's looking for them with a special he built."
Trigger up a on which was a gold ring with a small green in it. "Like this one?" she asked.
"He's got a large of that type of with him too. But he thinks that if any wild are around, they're likely to be along the lines of 113-A. So he's also a which to 113-A."
"I see." Trigger was a moment. "Does Mantelish have any idea why Repulsive is the only to which our ring don't react?"
"Apparently he does," Holati said. "But when he in on those subjects, I him difficult to follow." He looked at Trigger. "There are times," he confessed, "when I Professor Mantelish is daft. But he's just so that he my range."
Trigger laughed. "My father used to come home from a session with Mantelish the same of thing." She at the ring again. "By the way, have any actually been around here for us to detect?"
He nodded. "Quite a have been from Harvest Moon and points by now. I wouldn't be if some of them turn up here in the eventually. Not that it's a loss. What the have been away with is small stuff—plasmoid nuts and bolts, so to speak. Still, each of those would still around a hundred thousand credits, if you offered them to the right people. Incidentally, if you to this has with any personal plans, just say so. We can put it off till tomorrow. Especially since it's to look as if Mantelish won't make it here either."
"Either?" Trigger said.
"Quillan's already had to cancel. He got with something the afternoon."
"Oh," she said coolly. She looked at her watch. "I do have a dinner date with Brule Inger in an hour and a half. But you said this meeting wasn't to take more than an hour anyway, didn't you?"
He nodded.
"Then I'm free. My are arranged, and I'm to go on my old job in the morning."
"Fine," said the Commissioner. "There are I wanted to discuss with you privately anyway. If we can't through to Mantelish in another ten minutes, we'll go ahead with that. I would have liked to have Quillan here to us in with data about some of the top-level in the Hub. They're a of his. I don't know too much about them myself."
He paused. "That Lyad Ermetyne now," he said, "looks as if she either already is part of the main problem or is very hard to there. She's had a Tranest here for the past two weeks. A thing called the Aurora."
Trigger was startled. "But aren't allowed in Manon System!"
"It isn't in the system. It's a light-year away, where it has a legal right to be. Nothing to worry about as such. It's just a frigate, which is the limit Tranest is allowed to build. Since it's Lyad's private boat, I it's been up with they in. Anyway, the that she sent it here ahead of her she isn't just in for a visit."
"She that clear herself!" Trigger said. "Why do you think she's being so open about it?"
He shrugged. "Might have a number of reasons. One be that she'd the as soon as she up here. When Lyad goes anywhere, it's on business. After Quillan reported on your dinner party, I got all the I on her. The First Lady up as a cookie! Also smart. Most of those Ermetynes wind up being dead-brained by some relative, and they have to know how to up a of they're let into kindergarten. Lyad's been top dog among them since she was eighteen—"
His turned. A had in the next room. He up.
"Probably Mantelish's on the transmitter," he said. "I told them to call as soon as they him." He stopped at the door. "Care for a drink, Trigger girl? You know where the is."
"Not just now, thanks."
The Commissioner came in a of minutes. "Darn got in a swamp! They him finally, but he's too to come over now."
He sat and his thoughtfully. "Do you the time you passed out on the Harvest Moon?" he asked.
Trigger looked at him, puzzled. "The time I what?"
"Passed out. Fainted. Went out cold."
"I? You're out of your mind, Holati! I in my life."
"Reason I asked," he said, "is that I've been told a spell in a cubicle—same thing as a anyway, only it's used for therapy—sometimes amnesias."
"Amnesias! What are you talking about?"
The Commissioner said. "I'm talking about you. This is to be a jolt, Trigger girl. Might have been after a drink. But I'll just give it to you straight. About a week after Mantelish and his U-League here, you did pass out on one occasion while we were on the Harvest Moon with them. And you didn't doing it."
"I didn't?" Trigger said weakly.
"No. I it might have up, and you just had some for not wanting to mention it." He got to his feet. "Like that drink now—before I go on with the details?"
She nodded.
