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"About an hour after you'd decided to hit the bunk," Holati said, "Iportaled back to your rooms to pick up some Precol reports we'd beensetting up."
Trigger nodded. "I remember the reports."
"A couple of characters were working on your doors when I got there.They went for their guns, unfortunately. But I called the nearest ScoutIntelligence office and had them dead-brained."
"Why that?" she asked.
"It could have been an accident--a couple of ordinary thugs. But theirequipment looked a little too good for ordinary thugs. I didn't knowjust what to be suspicious of, but I got suspicious anyway."
"That's you, all right," Trigger acknowledged. "What were they?"
"They had an Evalee record which told us more than the brains did. Theywere high-priced boys. Their brains told us they'd allowed themselves tobe mind-blocked on this particular job. High-priced boys won't do thatunless they can set their standard price very much higher. It didn'tlook at all any more as if they'd come to your door by accident."
"No," she admitted.
"The Feds got in on it then. There'd been that business in Mantelish'slab. There were similarities in the pattern. You knew Mantelish. You'dbeen on Harvest Moon with him. They thought there could be aconnection."
"But what connection?" she protested. "I _know_ I don't know anythingthat could do anybody any good!"
He shrugged. "I can't figure it either, Trigger girl. But the upshot ofit was that I was put in charge of this phase of the generalinvestigation. If there is a connection, it'll come out eventually. Inany case, we want to know who's been trying to have you picked up andwhy."
She studied his face with troubled eyes.
"That's quite definite, is it?" she asked. "There couldn't possiblystill be a mistake?"
"No. It's definite."
"So that's what the grabber business in the Colonial School yesterdaywas about...."
He nodded. "It was their first try since the Evalee matter."
"Why do you think they waited so long?"
"Because they suspected you were being guarded. It's difficult to keepan adequate number of men around without arousing doubts in interestedobservers."
Trigger glanced at the plasmoid. "That sounds," she remarked, "as ifyou'd let other interested observers feel you'd left them a good openingto get at Repulsive."
He didn't quite smile. "I might have done that. Don't tell the Council."
Trigger pursed her lips. "I won't. So the grabbers who were after mefigured I was booby-trapped. But then they came in anyway. That doesn'tseem very bright. Or did you do something again to make them think theroad was clear?"
"No," he said. "They were trying to clear the road for themselves. Wethought they would finally. The deal was set up as a one-two."
"As a what?"
"One-two. You slug into what could be a trap like that with one gang. Ifit was a trap, they were sacrifices. You hope the opposition will nowrelax its precautions. Sometimes it does--and a day or so later you'reback for the real raid. That works occasionally. Anyway it was the planin this case."
"How do you know?"
"They'd started closing in for the grab in Ceyce when Quillan's grouplocated you. So Quillan grabbed you first."
She flushed. "I wasn't as smart as I thought, was I?"
The Commissioner grunted. "Smart enough to give us a king-sizedheadache! But _they_ didn't have any trouble finding you. We discoveredtonight that some kind of tracer material had been worked into all yourclothes. Even the flimsies. Somebody may have been planted in the schoollaundry, but that's not important now." He looked at her for a moment."What made you decide to take off so suddenly?" he asked.
Trigger shrugged. "I was getting pretty angry with you," she admitted."More or less with everybody. Then I applied for a transfer, and theapplication bounced--from Evalee! I figured I'd had enough and that I'djust quietly clear out. So I did--or thought I did."
"Can't blame you," said Holati.
Trigger said, "I still think it would have been smarter to keep meinformed right from the start of what was going on."
He shook his head. "I wouldn't be telling you a thing even now," hesaid, "if it hadn't been definitely established that you're alreadyinvolved in the matter. This could develop into a pretty messyoperation. I wouldn't have wanted you in on it, if it could have beenavoided. And if you weren't going to be in on it, I couldn't go spillingFederation secrets to you."
"I'm in on it, definitely, eh?"
He nodded. "For the duration."
"But you're still not telling me everything?"
"There're a few things I can't tell you," he said. "I'm following ordersin that."
Trigger smiled faintly. "That's a switch! I didn't know you knew how."
"I've followed plenty of orders in my time," the Commissioner said,"when I thought they made sense. And I think these do."
Trigger was silent a moment. "You said a while ago that most of the heatwas to go off me tonight. Can you talk about that?"
"Yes, that's all right." He considered. "I'll have to tell you somethingelse again first--why we're going to Manon."
She settled back in her chair. "Go ahead."
"Somebody got the idea that one of the things Gess Fayle might have doneis to arrange things so he wouldn't have to come back to the Hub for awhile. If he could set up shop on some outworld far enough away, andtinker around with that plasmoid unit for a year or so until he knew allabout it, he might do better for himself than by simply selling it tosomebody."
"But that would be pretty risky, wouldn't it?" said Trigger. "With justthe equipment he could pack on a League transport."
"Not very much risk," said the Commissioner, "if he had an agreement tohave an Independent Fleet meet him."
"Oh." She nodded.
"And by what is, at all events, an interesting coincidence," theCommissioner went on, "we've had word that an outfit called Vishni'sFleet hasn't been heard from for some months. Their I-Fleet area is along way out beyond Manon, but Fayle could have made it there, at Leagueship speeds, in about twenty days. Less, if Vishni sent a few pilots tomeet him and guide him out of subspace. If he's bought Vishni's, he'shad his pick of a few hundred uncharted habitable planets and a fewthousand very expert outworlders to see nothing happens to himplanetside. And Vishni's boys are exactly the kind of crumbs you couldbuy for a deal like that.
"Now, what's been done is to hire a few of the other I-Fleets aroundthere and set them and as many Space Scout squadrons as could be kickedloose from duty elsewhere to surveying the Vishni territory. Our outfitis in charge of that operation. And Manon, of course, is a lot betterpoint from which to conduct it than the Hub. If something is discoveredthat looks interesting enough to investigate in detail, we'll only be aweek's run away.
"So we've been ready to move for the past two weeks now, which was whenthe first reports started coming in from the Vishni area--negativereports so far, by the way. I've kept stalling from day to day, becausethere were also indications that your grabber friends might be gettingset to swing at you finally. It seemed tidier to get that matter clearedup first. Now they've swung, and we'll go."
He rubbed his chin. "The nice thing about it all," he remarked, "is thatwe're going there with the two items the opposition has revealed itwants. We're letting them know those items will be available in theManon System henceforward. They might get discouraged and just drop thewhole project. If they do, that's fine. We'll go ahead with cleaning upthe Vishni phase of the operation.
"But," he continued, "the indications are they can't drop their projectany more than we can drop looking for that key unit. So we'll expectthem to show up in Manon. When they do, they'll be working in unfamiliarterritory and in a system where they have only something like fiftythousand people to hide out in, instead of a planetary civilization. Ithink they'll find things getting very hot for them very fast in Manon."
"_Very_ good," said Trigger. "That I like! But what makes you think theop
position is just one group? There might be a bunch of them by now.Maybe even fighting among themselves."
"I'd bet on at least two groups myself," he said. "And if they'refighting, they've got our blessing. They're still all opposition as faras we're concerned."
She nodded, "How are you letting them know about the move?"
"The mountains around here are lousy with observers. Very cute trickssome of them use--one boy has been sitting in a hollow tree for weeks.We let them see what we want to. This evening they saw you coming in.Later tonight they'll see you climbing into the ship with the rest ofthe party and taking off. They've already picked up messages to tellthem just where the ship's going." He paused. "But you've got a job tofinish up here first, Trigger. That'll take about four days. So it won'treally be you they see climbing into the ship."
"What!" She straightened up.
"We've got a facsimile for you," he explained. "Girl agent. She goesalong to draw the heat to Manon."
Trigger felt herself tightening up slowly all over.
"What's this job you're talking about?" she asked evenly.
"Can't tell you in too much detail. But around four days from nowsomebody is coming in to Maccadon to interview you."
"Interview me? What about?"
He hesitated a moment. "There's a theory," he said, "that you might haveinformation you don't know you have. And that the people who sentgrabbers after you want that information. If it's true, the interviewwill bring it out."
Her mouth went dry suddenly. She turned her head to Quillan. "Major,"she said, "I think I'd like that cigarette now."
He came over and lit one for her. Trigger thanked him and puffed. Andshe'd almost spilled everything, she was thinking. The paid-upreservation. Every last thing.
"I'd like to get it straight," she said. "What you're talking aboutsounds like it's a mind-search job, Holati."
"It's in that class," he said. "But it won't be an ordinary mind-search.The people who are coming here are top experts at that kind of work."
She nodded. "I don't know much about it.... Do they think somebody's gotto me with a hypno-spray or something? That I've been conditioned?Something like that?"
"I don't know, Trigger," he said. "It may be something in that line.But whatever it is, they'll be able to handle it."
Trigger moistened her lips, "I was thinking, you know," she said."Supposing I'm mind-blocked."
He shook his head. "I can tell you that, anyway," he said. "We alreadyknow you're not."
Trigger was silent a moment. Then she said, "After that interview'sover, I'm to ship out to Manon--is that it?"
"That's right."
"But it would depend on the outcome of that interview too, wouldn't it?"Trigger pointed out. "I mean you can't really be sure what those peoplemight decide, can you?"
"Yes, I can," he said. "This thing's been all scheduled out, Trigger.And the next step of the schedule for you is Manon. Nothing else."
She didn't believe him in the least. He couldn't know. She nodded.
"Guess I might as well play along." She looked at him. "I don't think Ireally had much choice, did I?"
"Afraid not," he admitted. "It's one of those things that just have tobe done. But you won't find it all bad. Your companion, by the way, forthe next three days will be Mihul."
"Mihul!" Trigger exclaimed.
"Right there," said Mihul's voice. Trigger swung around in her chair.Mihul stood in a door which had appeared in the full wall of the room.She gave Trigger a smile. Trigger looked back at the Commissioner.
"I don't get it," she said.
"Oh, Mihul's in Scout Intelligence," he said, "wouldn't be here if sheweren't."
"Been an agent for eighteen years," Mihul said, coming forward. "Hi,Trigger, surprised?"
"Yes," Trigger admitted. "Very."
"They brought me into this job," Mihul said, "because they figured youand I would get along together just fine."
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