one wanted to put up the money to
hire a battle squad of Special Federation Police, he could always find
some use for them. But that's hopeless, of course."

Trigger straightened up. She reached out and poked Rak's bony chest with
a finger tip. "You know something?" she said. "It's not!"

The four faces lit up together.

"The fact is," Trigger went on, "that I'm handling the Project budget
until someone shows up to take over. So I think I'll just buy you that
Federation battle squad, Rak! I'll get on it right away." She stood up.
The Juniors bounced automatically out of their chairs. "You go tell your
guard Captain," she instructed them from the hall door, "there'll be a
squad showing up in time for dinner tonight."

* * * * *

The Federation Police Office in Ceyce informed Trigger that a Class A
Battle Squad--twenty trained men with full equipment--would report for
two months' duty at the Colonial School during the afternoon. She made
them out a check and gave it the Ruya Farn signature via telewriter. The
figure on that check was going to cause some U-League auditor's eyebrows
to fly off the top of his head one of these days; but if the League
insisted on remaining aloof to the problems of its Plasmoid Project, a
little financial anguish was the least it could expect in return.

Trigger felt quite cheerful for a while.

Then she had a call from Precol's Maccadon office. She was requested to
stand by while a personal interstellar transmission was switched to her
ComWeb.

It looked like her day! She hummed softly, waiting. She knew just one
individual affluent enough to be able to afford personal interstellar
conversations; and that was Commissioner Tate. Fast work, Plemp, she
thought approvingly.

But it was Brule Inger's face that flashed into view on the ComWeb.
Trigger's heart jumped. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Brule!" she yelled then. She shot up out of her chair. "Where are you
calling from?"

Brule's eyes crinkled around the edges. He gave her the smile. The good
old smile. "Unfortunately, darling, I'm still in the Manon System." He
blinked. "What happened to your hair?"

"Manon!" said Trigger. She started to settle back, weak with
disappointment. Then she shot up again. "Brule! Lunatic! You're blowing
a month's salary a minute on this! I love you! Switch off, fast!"

Brule threw back his head and laughed. "You haven't changed much in two
months, anyway! Don'