gether. "You work on your own time, getting
the cargo with trundle-sleds, loading it, taking off, delivering it to
the Denebian freighter at the spaceport. When you are finished, you
collect your pay."

"Where do we sleep?" someone asked.

* * * * *

Orkap smiled. "You didn't come out here to sleep. There is only a
limited amount of cargo. The jets are swift. You will be paid according
to the amount of work you do. Any other questions?"

"What about food?" a plump young Ophiuchan asked.

"You will be given energy tablets, as many as you wish. Any other
questions? No? Good. I have two additional things to say. First, you are
not to examine your cargo under any circumstances, either here, or in
transit, or on the spacefield. There are televid pick-up units in each
jet, so you will be watched at all times. Second--" Orkap paused and let
the silence grow and spread across the dazzling white expanse--"there is
a spy among you, wearing the body of an Ophiuchan but in reality--well,
I don't have to tell you who he is in reality." Orkap smiled grimly.
"There is only one body-changer in the galaxy, but one is quite enough."

One of the pilots said, a little breathlessly: "Johnny Mayhem!"

Orkap smiled again. "I am aware of Mayhem's identity," he said, "but I'm
not going to do anything about it."

The pilots waited. The sun glared down balefully. "You see," Orkap told
them, "we cannot be altogether sure that the rest of you are here simply
to earn your twenty credits a flight. Mayhem has unwittingly become our
insurance. Find Mayhem! Find the spy among you! A hundred credits bonus
to the man who does!"

* * * * *

Pandit looked at Sria, who whistled. The girl said: "If they think we
can finish the job without sleep, picking up cargo and flying it to the
spaceport and returning for more, then a hundred credits is probably
more than any of us will earn. They'll all be looking like hawks for
this Mayhem."

"And," Pandit agreed, "if there's a native spy among them, he'd be
afraid to show himself for fear they'll think he's Mayhem. Very clever
of the Denebians."

"... to work at once," Orkap was saying. He wore a blaster on his hip,
the only weapon among them. They all trudged behind him through the
burning, faceless sands. Soon they reached a depression from which the
sand had been cleared, baring the white bedrock of the Empty Places. In
the rock a square o