eridim, by the smell of it. Had a little trouble here, I see."

"A little," the Commissioner acknowledged. "They went for their guns."

"Very uninformed gentlemen," said Quillan. He let Lyad's limp form slide
off his shoulder, and bent forward to lower her into the subtub's back
seat. Trigger had been waiting for a chance to get into the
conversation.

"Just who," she demanded now, frowning, "is a bit ta-ta at the moment?"

"You," said Quillan. "You're doped, remember? You'll ride up front with
the Commissioner. Here." He picked her up, plasmoid purse and all, and
set her down on the front seat. Holati Tate, she discovered then, was
already inside. Quillan swung down into the seat behind her. The canopy
snapped shut above.

The Commissioner shifted the tub's controls. In the screens, the room
outside vanished. A darkness went rushing downwards past them.

A thought suddenly popped to mind again, and Trigger burst into tears.
The Commissioner glanced over at her.

"What's the matter, Trigger girl?"

"I'm so s-sorry I killed Pilli. He s-screamed."

Then her mind froze up with a jolt, and thinking stopped completely.
Quillan reached over the back of the seat and eased her over on her
side.

"Got to her finally!" he said. He sat down again. He brooded a moment.
"She shouldn't get so disturbed about that Pilli thing," he remarked
then. "It couldn't have lived anyway."

"Eh?" the Commissioner said absently, watching the screens. "Why not?"

"Its brains," Quillan explained, "were too far apart."

The Commissioner blinked. "It's getting to you too, son!" he said.

23

Trigger came out of the ceridim trance hours before Lyad awoke from the
stunner blast she'd absorbed. The Commissioner was sitting in a chair
beside her bunk, napping.

She looked around a moment, feeling very comfortable and secure. This
was her personal cabin on Commissioner Tate's ship, the one he referred
to as the Big Job, modeled after the long-range patrol ships of the
Space Scouts. It wasn't actually very big, but six or seven people could
go traveling around in it very comfortably. At the moment it appeared to
be howling through subspace at its hellish rate again, going somewhere.

Well, that could keep.

Trigger reached out and poked the Commissioner's knee. "Hey, Holati!"
she whispered. "Wake up."

His eyes opened. He looked at her and smiled. "Back again, eh?" he said.

Trigger motioned at the door. "Close it," she whisp