oducts of advanced technology
turn up--from whence, we don't seem to be able to find out."

Under his breath, Ronny muttered, "_Paine!_"

"I beg your pardon," the old man said.

"Nothing," the Section G agent said. He leaned forward and, a worried
frown working its way over his face, began to question the other more
closely.

Afterwards, Ronny Bronston strode slowly toward the UP headquarters. There
was only a small contingent of United Planets personnel on this little
populated member planet but, as always, there seemed to be an office for
Section G.

Ronny stood outside it for a moment. There were voices from within, but he
didn't knock.

In fact, he cast his eyes up and down the short corridor. At the far end
was a desk with a girl in the Interplanetary Cultural Exchange Department
working away in concentration. She wasn't looking in his direction.

Ronny Bronston put his ear to the door. The building was primitive enough,
rustic enough in its construction, to permit his hearing.

Tog Lee Chang Chu was saying seriously, "Oh, it was chaotic all right, but
no, I don't really believe it could have been a Tommy Paine case. Actually
I'd suggest to you that you run over to Catalina. When I was on Avalon I
heard rumors that Tommy Paine's finger seemed to be stirring around in the
mess there. Yes, I'd recommend that you take off for Catalina immediately.
If Paine is anywhere in this vicinity at all, it would be Catalina."

For a moment, Ronny Bronston froze. Then in automatic reflex his hand went
inside his jacket to rest over the butt of the Model H automatic there.

No, that wasn't the answer. His hand dropped away from the gun.

He listened, further.

Another voice was saying, "We thought we were on the trail for a while on
Hector, but it turned out it wasn't Paine. Just a group of local agitators
fed up with the communist regime there. There's going to be a blood bath
on Hector, before they're through, but it doesn't seem to be Paine's work
this time."

Tog's voice was musing. "Well, you never know, it sounds like the sort of
muck he likes to play in."

The strange voice said argumentatively, "Well, Hector _needs_ a few
fundamental changes."

"It could be," Tog said, "but that's their internal affairs, of course.
Our job in Section G is to prevent troubles between the differing
socio-economic and religious features of member planets. Whatever we think
of some of the things Paine does, our task is to get