nel and salvageable goods would begin.
Damned if I don’t think I made a mistake in running
such an efficient base, Langenschmidt told himself glum-
ly. If I hadn’t given strict orders to the contrary, I think
we could have done the whole job in two days flat.
Meantime, while he cast around for new ways of
stalling the Cyclopeans, two significant tasks were in
progress. A friendly executive of the Corps personnel
branch, back at headquarters, was tracing one Pavel
Brzeska, on promotion furlough following his tour as
commandant of the Patrol sector which included Lan-
genschmidt’s old beatnormally, Langenschmidt pre-
ferred not to have more truck with generals than he
could avoid, but this was a special caseand some highly
interesting work was going on at the dock, under the
rough wooden deck of Bracy’s trawler.
Already it had had enough trickery and gadgets
crammed into its small hull to make it the envy of the
richest fishing family in Grarignol. If there was room for
all the machinery Maddalena had specified as “poten-
tially handy”, it would wind up being the envy of the
richest private yachtsman this side of Earth.
Not that the said yachtsman would ever get to hear of
it.
By the evening of Day Two, as Langenschmidt was
now mentally labelling it, both these matters arrived at a
satisfactory conclusion. The trawler would have to make
its departure as openly as possible, so there was no ques-
tion of a night sailinga waste of several hours, but on
the other hand no matter how fast the ship could poten-
tially travel it would have to dawdle until it was beyond
the watchful ring of Cyclopean forces, which would
make the start of the trip very slow anyway. Maddalena
was closeted with Bracy, training him in some of the
techniques the rebuilt vessel would call on him to em-
ploy.
And the call came through from Pavel Brzeska. Lan-
genschmidt, having made quite certain that the Cy-
clopean inspectors would be kept away for an hour or
two, took it in his villa.
“Gus!” the new general exclaimed as the connection
came through. “I )ust got the news of the pickle you’re
in out on Cyclops! What possessed you to get backed
into a corner by that crowd? You’ve tangled with them
before, haven’t you? During the affair on Fourteen, I
seem to remember.”
“That’s right.” Langenschmidt nodded. “With Mad-
dalena Santoswho’s here, by the way; I sent for her be-
cause of the Conference on Non-Interference with
ZRP’s they’re holding.”
“Heard about it. The first time Cyclops has made the
news in the Old System since its original breakaway
from Dagon, I imagine. There’s a powerful lobby work-
ing on the subject, and a good deal of sentimental propa-
ganda being splashed around.” Brzeska scowled. “What
does it look like from the Cyclops end, anyway?”
“Much the same as those we’ve had beforepious and
empty. But listen, Pavel! What I need you for is some-
thing more or less related to the ZRP’s, and with your
background you can tell me a lot of things I daren’t ob-
tain conspicuously through normal channels. I’m going
on a. string of suspicions, and though I’m morally certain
I’m right I can’t call for full Corps support without more
solid evidence.”
“Explain!” Brzesica commanded.
Langenschmidt did so. He wound up, “It’s been very-
tricky trying to complete the calculations involved, of
coursewe have to keep taking the Cyclopean inspectors
in and out of the computing rooms to check on
manifests and personnel registers and so forth. But by
nha bit of dodging we’ve managed to narrow the
search area in which the missing ZRP must lie down to a
fifty-parsec sphere. Who do I ask to loan me some ships
to find it?”
Brzeska scowled again, this time ferociously. “Damna-
tion! What’s become of the Corps in your sector since I
came home? Time was, if a suspicion like yours blew up,
they’d assign you the entire Fourth Fleet and no ques-
tions asked!”
“If they hadn’t issued this ultimatum to me, I’d have
been in a position to make the request officially. As it
stands, the assumption is that I’m costing the Corps its