s way out into the corridor,
his unwieldy package hanging to his shoulder and runlets of water
making a trail behind him--and stepped into the nearby emergency lock.

In the lock he quickly donned one of the emergency spacesuits that
hung there, gathered up his bundle again, and stepped out on the
catwalk of the inner part of the rim, under the brilliant night sky at
the moment, but turning towards its "sunrise." He opened his plastic
package.

"Major Elbertson," he said, turning on the Security radio, "you now
have five minutes to surrender."

Attaching his suit to the guideline nearby, part of the rim's
"hairnet," he crept out over the inside edge of the rim. From this
position he had a full view of the glowing bubble that was Hot Rod for
the few seconds until the movement of the rim took him past the
"sunrise" point and turned him sunwards.

Last time Mike had been out on the rim, the wheel had not been
turning. There'd been no reference of up and down, other than the rim
itself as an oddly curved floor. Now he felt disoriented. The wheel
was spinning, the hub, therefore, seemed "up." And from the edge of
the rim where he clung to its hairnet, all directions were down.

* * * * *

The stars seemed to sweep beneath his feet and over his head; and
though it was a slow pattern, only twice as fast as the crawl of a
second hand around the face of a clock, it was, nevertheless,
disorienting.

Bracing himself carefully into the net, with his back wedged firmly
against the rim, he adjusted his bizarre "gun" to rest on his knees so
that he could sight in the direction that was, to his body's senses,
straight down.

Not at all, he thought, like trying to shoot fish in a barrel. More
like being the fish and trying to shoot the people outside the barrel.

Back in the shadow again. Not really shadow where he sat, but the rim
around him, below him, and curving away from him, had disappeared in
its brief nightside, and there came Hot Rod again. Carefully he
tracked it; then putting his eye to the scope he focused briefly on
one of the high-pressure supporting tubes that formed the rigid
structure from which the aiming mirror was held in place.

And fired.

The tube burst, noiselessly but quite spectacularly. And the mirror
itself shuddered shook, as the tube's gases escaped.

Now he was in bright sunlight again, quickly closing his eyes as the
sun itself looked full into his vision, an