d day trying to
get his wives to stop nagging him. "Ken," he said. "I thought you were
on vacation. What are you doing calling up the FBI, or do you just
want to feel superior to us poor working slobs?"

"I need some information," Malone said.

Boyd uttered a short, mirthless laugh. "How to beat the tables, you
mean?" he said. "How are things in good old Las Vegas?"

Malone, realizing that with direct-dial phones Boyd had no idea where
he was actually calling from, kept wisely quiet. "How about Burris?"
he said after a second. "Has he come up with any new theories yet?"

"New theories?" Boyd said. "What about?"

"Everything," Malone said. "From all I see in the papers things
haven't been quieting down any. Is it still Brubitsch, Borbitsch and
Garbitsch putting psychodrugs in water-coolers, or has something new
been added?"

"I don't know what the chief thinks," Boyd said. "Things'll straighten
out in a while. We're working on it--twenty-four hours a day, or damn
near, but we're working. While you take a nice, long vacation that--"

"I want you to get me something," Malone said. "Just go and get it and
send it to me at Las Vegas."

"Money?" Boyd said with raised eyebrows.

"Dossiers," Malone said. "On Mike Sand and Primo Palveri."

"Palveri I can understand," Boyd said. "You want to threaten him with
exposure unless he lets you beat the roulette tables. But why Sand?
Ken, are you working on something psionic?"

"Me?" Malone said sweetly. "I'm on vacation."

"The chief won't like--"

"Can you send me the dossiers?" Malone interrupted.

Boyd shook his head very slowly. "Ken, I can't do it without the chief
finding out about it. If you are working on something ... hell, I'd
like to help you. But I don't see how I can. You don't know what
things are like here."

"What are they like?" Malone said.

"The full force is here," Boyd said. "As far as I know, you're the
only vacation leave not canceled yet. And not only that, but we've got
agents in from the Surete and New Scotland Yard, agents from Belgium
and Germany and Holland and Japan ... Ken, we've even got three MVD
men here working with us."

"It's happening all over?" Malone said.

"All over the world," Boyd said. "Ken, I'm beginning to think we've
got a case of Martian Invaders on our hands. Or something like it." He
paused. "But we're licking them, Ken," he went on. "Slowly but surely,
we're licking them."

"How do you mean?" Malone said.

"Cr