anced at the woman. She was past the first bloom of youth and her
face, under her makeup, was heavily lined, her eyes shrewd and
observing. Had he known that she had been shadowing him almost from
the instant of his arrival in Los Angeles, and had been awaiting his
return to Earth in obedience to carefully formulated instructions he
would not have regarded her so complacently.

The monorail shot up toward the Palms-Pine pass of the San Jacinto
Mountains. From the crest of the grade Hunter could look back at the
flat, cemented field of the spaceport and the ragged teeth of the
launching tubes rearing high on the Mojave. Ahead of him, misted by
the blue haze of industrial smog, was Los Angeles, the capital city of
Sector West--and indirectly the capital of the entire planet.

Almost indistinct against the horizon were the soaring, Babel towers,
the tangled network of walk-levels, jet-ways and private landing
flats, which was the center-city. The lower, bulky factory buildings
squatted under the towers and spreading outward from them, like
concentric rings made by a stone hurled into a quiet pool, was the
monotonous clutter of the minimum-housing.

The city sprawled from San Diego to Santa Barbara, and it lapped
against the arid Mojave to the east. Beyond were the suburban homes of
laborers and low-echelon executives who had carved brass-knuckled
niches for themselves in the medium-income bracket.

Hunter saw the panoramic view of Sector West for only a split-second
before the monorail car screamed down through the layer of gray haze.
For thirty minutes the car shot across the minimum-housing area,
stopping from time to time at high-platformed stations.

In the industrial district the car emptied rapidly. Only Hunter and
his faded seat companion got out at the turnaround terminal and took
the slideway to center-city. In the metro-entry at the top of the
stairs they went through a security check station manned by six
blaster-armed police guards.

Half of the guards wore the insignia of Consolidated Solar Industries
and half of United Research, the two titan cartels which were locked
in deadly battle for the empire beyond the stars.

The government played it safe, Hunter thought with bitterness, using
an equal number of police from each organization. On Earth the pacific
balance of commercial power was never disturbed--not, at least, on the
surface. The two imperial giants lived side by side in a tactful
display of p