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The day was over The crowd had dispersed The city had taken on a quiet, almost sleepy atmosphere, with only an occasional knot of two or three still discussing the events of the past several hours

And Bigman was annoyed

With Morriss he had left the scene of the recent danger and zoomed out to Council headquarters There Morriss had had his conference with Lucky, a conference to which Bigman was not allowed entry and frory Lucky remained calm but uncoain, Lucky said et back to the hotel I need sleep, and so do you after your own little game today"

He hummed the Council March under his breath, as he always did when he was co tollcar The car stopped autoers spread wide registered on its photoelectric scanners

Lucky pushed Bigman in before him He turned the dials to indicate the co-ordinate position of the Hotel Bellevue-Aphrodite, put in the proper combination of coins, and let the machine&039;s computer take over With Ms foot he adjusted the speed lever to low

The tollcar drifted forith a pleasantly s and restful if he had been in a less itchingly curious state of lance at his large friend Lucky seeht At least he leaned back on the upholstery and closed his eyes, letting the motion rock hie mouth, which sed them as the tollcar auto dock of the hotel&039;s garage

Only when they were in their own rooman reach the point of explosion He cried, "Lucky, what&039;s it all about? I&039;ure it out"

Lucky stripped off his shirt and said, "Actually, it&039;s only a ic What kind of accidents occurred as a result ofmentally doiving awaypoison in a nutrient mixture for yeast In each case, the action was a s done"

"Well?" said Bight, what did we have today? It wasn&039;t so But it wasn&039;t action It was exactly the opposite of action: ANothing!"

Lucky vanished into the bathrooasps under its invigorating jets Bigely under his breath

"Hey," he yelled

Lucky, hispuffs of waret it?"

"Space, Lucky, don&039;t be mysterious, will you? You know I hate that"

"But there&039;s nothing ed their entire style, and there must be a reason

Don&039;t you see the reason for having a ?"

"I said I didn&039;t"

"Well, as acco? Great galaxy! Nothing? They only get half the population of Aphrodite and practically every official&039; out to the threatened sector in double-speed tiet me out there and you and Morriss Most of the city was left bare, including Council headquarters And I was such a lunk that it was only when Turner, the city&039;s chief engineer, et out of the city with the police force disrupted that it occurred to "

"I still don&039;t see it So help

"Hold it, boy," Lucky seized Bige palot back to Council headquarters as fast as possible and found that Lou Evans had already gone"

"Where did they take him?"

"If you mean the Council, they didn&039;t take hiuard, seized a weapon, used his Council wrist-et a subship and escaped to sea"

"Was that what they were really after?"

"Obviously The threat to the city was strictly a feint As soon as Evans was safely out into the ocean, the man at the lock was released froman&039;s mouth worked "Sands of Mars! All that stuff in the ventilating duct was for nothing I was fifty kinds of cobbered fool"

"No, Bigood job, a terrific job, and the Council is going to hear about it"

The little Martian flushed, and for aelse Lucky took the opportunity to get into bed

Then Bigman said, "Bat Lucky, that ot away by a trick of the uilty, isn&039;t he?"

"No," said Lucky vehe man to let the matter die It was only after he had burrowed into the cool plastex sheets, having undressed and washed in his turn, that he tried again

"Lucky?"

"Yes, Bigman"

"What do we do next?"

"Go after Lou Evans"

"We do? What about Morriss?"

"I&039;e of the project now I had Chief Councilman Conway put that across all the way froman nodded in the darkness That explained why he hih he ht be of Lucky Starr a dozen times over, he was not a member of the Council of Science And, in a situation where Lucky would have to move in over a fellow councilman&039;s head and call in the authority of Earth and central headquarters to back him, non-councilmen were strictly not wanted as witnesses

But now the old lust for action was beginning to stir in him It would be into an ocean now, the vastest, most alien ocean on the inner planets He said excitedly, "How early do we leave?"

"As soon as the ship they&039;re outfitting is ready Only first we see Turner"

"The engineer? What for?"

"I have the records on the men involved in the various mentalist incidents in the city up to today, and I want to know about the man at the lock dome, too Turner is the man who&039;s likely to know most about him But before we see Turner"

"Yes?"

"Before that, you Martian peanut, we sleep Now shut up"

Turner&039;s dwelling place turned out to be a rather large aparth in the adman whistled softly when they passed into the lobby, with its paneled walls and trimensional seascapes Lucky led the way into a trundle and pressed Turner&039;s apartment number

The trundle lifted the on directed force bea outside the back entrance to Turner&039;s apartment They stepped out, and the trundle went off with a whirr, disappearing behind a turn in the corridor

Bigly "Say, I never saw one of those before"

"It&039;s a Venusian invention," said Lucky "They&039;re introducing them into new apart about the old apartive each apartment a special trundle-served entrance"

Lucky touched the indicator, which promptly turned red The door opened, and a wo and quite pretty, with blue eyes and blond hair drawn softly backward and over her ears in the Venusian fashion

"Mr Starr?"