of what Tawney had said. Tawney
was right about one thing ... there was no way that Dad could have
hidden a Big Strike so nobody could find it. It had to be there....

And yet it wasn't. He and Greg hadn't found it. Tawney's men hadn't
found it, either. Why not? There must be a reason.

But he could not put his finger on it.

Half an hour later he was seriously worried. Half the compartments in
the area were deserted, the men leaving for the cafeteria. The thought
reminded Tom how hungry he was, and thirsty. His small emergency ration
kit was empty. He toyed with the thought of sneaking into a food storage
compartment, then thrust it out of his mind as too risky. He had to find
Greg and Johnny before anything.

He passed a grill, and heard a murmur of voices; something in the deep
bass rumble caught his ear, and he stopped, listened.

The voices stopped also.

He waited for them to begin, pressing against the grill. Johnny Coombs
was not the only man with a deep bass voice, he might have been
mistaken. He listened, but there was no sound. He heard the whir of a
fan begin, still no sound, not even footsteps.

And then it happened, so fast he was taken completely off guard. The
grill suddenly gave way, pitching him forward into the compartment.
Something struck him behind the ear as he fell; there was a grunt, a
sharp command, and he was pinned to the floor in the semi-darkness of
the compartment.

Then he heard a gasp, and he opened his eyes. He was staring into his
brother's startled face. Greg was pinning his shoulders to the carpeted
deck, and behind him Johnny Coombs had a fist raised....

But they had stopped in mid-air, like a tableau of puppets. Greg gaped,
his jaw falling open, and Tom heard himself saying, "What are you trying
to do, kill a guy? Seems to me one time is enough."

He had found them.

10. The Trigger

In the first instance of astonishment they were speechless. Later, Tom
said it was the first time in his life that he had ever seen Greg
totally without words; his brother jumped back, as if he had seen a
ghost, and his mouth worked, but no sounds came out.

"Don't worry, it's me all right," Tom said, "and I'm mighty hungry."

Greg and Johnny stared at the black hole behind the grill ... and then
Greg was pumelling him, pounding him on the back, so excited he couldn't
get a sentence out, and Johnny was hovering over them, incredulous but
forced to believe his eyes, like a fath