foresee, mining in the Belt."

"Things like a fuel tank exploding? Not to Dad, they would never happen.
I don't care what anybody says...."

"Easy, Tom," Greg said.

"Well, I won't take it easy. Dad was too careful for something like that
to happen. If he had an accident, somebody _made_ it happen."

Greg turned to the major. "What was Dad doing out there?"

"Mining."

"By himself? No crew at all?"

"No, he was alone."

"I thought the regulations said there always had to be at least two men
working an asteroid claim."

"That's right. Your father had Johnny Coombs with him when he left Sun
Lake City. They signed out as a team ... and then Johnny came back to
Mars on the first shuttle ship."

"How come?"

"Not even Johnny knows. Your father just sent him back, and there was
nothing we could do about it then. The U.N. has no jurisdiction in the
belt, unless a major crime has been committed." Major Briarton shook his
head helplessly. "If a man is determined to mine a claim all by himself
out there, he can find a dozen different ways to wiggle out of the
regulations."

"But Dad would never be that stupid," Greg said. "If he was alone when
it happened, who found him?"

"A routine U.N. Patrol ship. When Roger failed to check in at the
regular eight-hour signal, they went out to see what was wrong. But by
the time they reached him, it was too late to help."

"I just don't get it," Greg said. "Dad had more sense than to try to
mine out there all by himself."

"I know," the major said. "I don't know the answer. I had the Patrol
ship go over the scene of the accident with a comb after they found what
had happened, but there was nothing there to find. It was an accident,
and that's that."

"What about Jupiter Equilateral?" Tom said hotly. "Everybody knows they
were out to get Dad ... why don't you find out what _they_ were doing
when it happened, bring them in for questioning...."

"I can't do that, I haven't a scrap of evidence," the major said
wearily.

"Why can't you? You're the Mars Coordinator, aren't you? You act like
you're scared of them."

Major Briarton's lips tightened angrily. "All right, since you put it
that way ... I _am_ scared of them. They're big, and they're powerful.
If they had their way, there wouldn't be any United Nations control on
Mars, there wouldn't be _anybody_ to fight them and keep them in check.
There wouldn't be any independent miners out in the Belt, either,
because they'