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Dr Gardoo alone?"

"Why not?" interposed Urteil "The heroics are cheap enough Of course they&039;ll go alone There&039;s nothing and nobody there, and they know it"

"Care to join us?" asked Big mouth behind you can fit into a suit"

"You wouldn&039;t crowd one even with yours," snarled Urteil

Dr Gardo alone if "

"A preliation," said Lucky, "will do no harht There may be no one there At the worst, we&039;ll keep in touch with you at the Doht situations"

"Besides which," added Bigrin, "Lucky and I like tight situations"

Lucky smiled and rose to his feet "If we may be excused "

Urteil at once rose, turned, and stahtfully

Lucky stopped Hartley Cook as the latter passed Mently

Cook looked up, his eyes all concern "Yes What is it, sir?"

Lucky said quietly, "May I see you in our quarters as soon as possible?"

"I&039;ll be there in fifteen ht?"

"Fine"

Cook was very little later than that He stepped into their quarters softly, wearing the look of concern that seemed a constant part of hiular face and light brown hair that was beginning to be touched with gray

Lucky said, "I had forgotten to tell you where our quarters were I&039;m sorry"

Cook looked surprised "I knehere you were assigned,"

"Well, good Thank you for co at our request"

"Oh," Cook paused Then he said hurriedly, "Glad to Glad to"

Lucky said, "There&039;s a small matter of the insulation suits in this room The ones intended for use on the Sun-side"

"The inso-suits? We didn&039;t forget the instruction film, did we?"

"No, no I viewed that It&039;s quite another thing"

Cook said, "Soman "Look for yourself" He spread the arms in order to display the slashes

Cook looked blank, then flushed slowly and grew round-eyed with horror "I don&039;t see It&039;s impos sible Here at the Doet it replaced"

"But ould do such a thing? WeDr Peverale"

"No, no," said Cook, at once, as though he had not thought of it before

"We&039;ll find out the details in due tiet it replaced"

"Certainly I&039;ll attend to it proot to his feet in a kind of speechlessness and o

But Lucky stopped his we et to that-I take it you did not agree with Dr Peverale&039;s views on the Sirians"

Cook frowned "I&039;d rather not discuss that"

"I watched you as he was speaking You disapproved, I think"

Cook seat down again His bony fingers clutched one another in a tight clasp and he said, "He&039;s an old man He&039;s been all mixed up about the Sirians for years Psychopathic, almost He sees the If our plates are overexposed, he blames them Since he&039;s been back from Skius he&039;s worse than ever, because of what he claih?"

"Nothing terrible, I suppose But they quarantined hi They were too polite sometimes They were too rude other ti him, I suppose Then they forced a positronic robot on him to take care of personal services"

"Did he object to that too?"

"He claims it was because they wouldn&039;t come near hi as an insult"

"Were you with him?"

Cook shook his head "Sirius would only accept one one He&039;s too old, really-too old"

Cook was talking in a brooding sort of way He looked up suddenly "This is all confidential, by the way"

"Completely," Lucky assured him

"What about your friend?" said Cook uncertainly "I mean, I know he&039;s honorable, but he&039;s a little, uh, hotheaded"

"Hey," began Big

Lucky&039;s affectionate hand came down on the little fellow&039;s head and brushed his hair down on his forehead "He&039;s hotheaded, all right," he said, "as you saw at the banquet table I can&039;t always stop him in tiue and his fist instead of his head That&039;s so I always have to keep in mind Still, when I ask hi, he is quiet, and that&039;s all there is to it"

"Thank you," said Cook

Lucky went on "To get back to ree with Dr Peverale concerning the Sirians in this present case?"

"I don&039;t Hoould they know about Project Light, and why should they care? I don&039;t see the trouble with the Solar System just so they can break a few cables Of course, I tell you this, Dr Peverale has been feeling hurt for quite a while now "

"In ay?"

"Well, Mindes and his group were established here while he was at Sirius He ca eventually It&039;s been planned for years Still, co theet rid of Mindes?"

"Oh no, nothing like that He&039;s even been friendly It&039;s just that it ether, ht So it&039;s pleasant for hi affair about Sirians That&039;s his baby, you see"

Lucky nodded, then said, "Tell me, have you ever been on Ceres?"