of exchange student-observer Hubert Harrison, charged with theft and
violent assault on the person of a Dovenilid citizen. Union citizen
Harrison was unavailable for comment at this time, but Topical News
will present his views and such other clues when more ensues.

Marlowe grunted. Journalese was getting out of hand again. That last
rhyming sentence was sure to stick in the audience's brains. It might be
only another advertising gimmick, but if they started doing it with the
body of the news itself, it might be well to feed Topical enough false
leads to destroy what little reputation for comprehensibility they had
left.

[Illustration]

He touched his interphone switch.

"Uh ... Mary, what was the hooper on that broadcast?"

"Under one per cent, sir."

Which meant that, so far, the Body Politic hadn't reacted.

"Thank you. Is there anything else coming in?"

"Not at the moment, sir."

"What's--" Cabbage. "What's Dalish ud Klavan doing?"

"His residence is the Solar Hostel, sir. The management reports that he
is still in his room, and has not reserved space on any form of
long-distance transportation. He has not contacted us, either, and there
is a strong probability that he may still be unaware of what's
happened."

"How many calls did he make yesterday, either before or after he was
here, and to whom?"

"I can get you a list in ten minutes, sir."

"Do that, Mary."

He switched off, sat slapping the edge of his desk with his hand, and
switched on again.

"Mary, I want the GenSurvs on the Dovenil area to a depth of ten cubic
lights."

"Yes, sir."

"And get me Mr. Mead on the phone, please."

"Yes, sir."

Marlowe's lips pulled back from his teeth as he switched off. He
snatched a candy bar out of his drawer, tore the film part way off, then
threw it back in the drawer as his desk phone chimed.

"Here, Chris."

"Here, Mr. Marlowe."

"Look, Chris--has Holliday left Earth yet?"

"Yes, sir. Yes, Dave."

"Where is he?"

"Luna, en route to Karlshaven. He was lucky enough to have me arrange
for his accidentally getting a ride on a GenSurv ship that happened to
be going out that way, if you follow me." Mead grinned.

"Get him back."

The smile blanked out. "I can't do that, Mr. Marlowe! He'd never be able
to take it. You should have seen him when I put him on the shuttle. We
doped him up with EasyRest, and even then his subconscious could _feel_
the bulkheads around him, e