ore my eyes.

Jenny made a sick sound in her throat and stared at the rows of
healthy plants. "I checked the valves, and this sick section is
isolated. But--if chromazone got into the chemicals.... Better get your
spectroanalyzer out, Hal, while I get Captain Muller. Paul, be a dear
and find Hendrix, will you?"

I shook my head, and went further down the rows. "No need, Jenny," I
called back. I pointed to the shoe I'd seen sticking out from the edge
of one of the tanks. There was a leg attached.

I reached for it, but Lomax shoved me back. "Don't--the enzymes in the
corpse are worse than the poison, Paul. Hands off." He reached down
with the gloves and heaved. It was Hendrix, all right--a corpse with a
face and hands as white as human flesh could ever get. Even the lips
were bleached out.

Jenny moaned. "The fool! The stupid fool. He _knew_ it was dangerous
without gloves; he suspected chromazone, even though none's supposed
to be on board. And I warned him . . ."

"Not against this, you didn't," I told her. I dropped to my knees and
took another pair of gloves. Hendrix's head rolled under my grasp. The
skull was smashed over the left eye, as if someone had taken a
sideswipe at Hendrix with a hammer. No fall had produced that. "You
should have warned him about his friends. Must have been killed, then
dumped in there."

"Murder!" Hal bit the word out in disgust. "You're right, Paul. Not
too stupid a way to dispose of the body, either--in another couple of
hours, he'd have started dissolving in that stuff, and we'd never have
guessed it was murder. That means this poisoning of the plants wasn't
an accident. Somebody poisoned the water, then got worried when there
wasn't a report on the plants; must have been someone who thought it
worked faster on plants than it does. So he came to investigate, and
Hendrix caught him fooling around. So he got killed."

"But who?" Jenny asked.

I shrugged sickly. "Somebody crazy enough--or desperate enough to turn
back that he'll risk our air and commit murder. You'd better go after
the captain while Hal gets his test equipment. I'll keep watch here."

It didn't feel good in hydroponics after they left. I looked at those
dead plants, trying to figure whether there were enough left to keep
us going. I studied Hendrix's body, trying to tell myself the murderer
had no reason to come back and try to get me.

I reached for a cigarette, and then put the pack back. The air felt
almos