Part 15 (1/2)
”Sir,” she said a little stronger. ”E McGinnis won't talk to you. He says the foggy, rambling way that review was conducted was a disgrace.
He says why don't you get on with what you have to do instead of bothering people. He says not to waste any more of his time unless you can come up with something he doesn't already know. He says he doubts you'd know what that was even if it hit you in the face. He said to tell you the exact words, so I took it down in shorthand, so I could.
Because--he said to.”
She was all but wailing, as she finished.
”All right,” Hayes sighed tiredly. Senile old devil! No wonder things were going to pot, if this was a sample of E training. ”Send me your notes so I can follow them carefully,” he told the operator.
”So you can tear them up before they get spread all over the joint,” she mumbled, but she had already thrown the key so he couldn't hear her.
Resignedly, because he knew he was going to catch it from the scientists just as bad, because he was feeling very sorry for himself that he must always be in the middle of things, he began to arouse the scientists.
He felt so sorry for himself that he dropped his tentative plan to have the midgit-idgit check the personal attributes of the individual colonists out there--to see if some of them might be young, pretty, female--34-24-34.
As if the idea were now red hot, he dropped the plan of telling General Administration that, since Eden was in his sector, perhaps he should go out there, personally.
15
The observer s.h.i.+p, with an a.s.sistant attorney general aboard was, indeed, reporting directly to the attorney general's office--to Gunderson in person. On their own secret channel, of course. Had to be secret. All right for them to know, because they were very special persons, but the people should not be told.
”Gray is coming out of the s.h.i.+p,” the a.s.sistant was saying. ”He is starting down the ramp. He is alone. He has no apparent weapons. Making a grandstand play of it. Far as we can tell, the crew isn't covering him. Now he is at the foot of the ramp. The three unclothed men are moving toward him, spread out a little, crouching, obviously going to attack. The stupid fool doesn't seem to realize it. He's ...
”Wait a minute. I don't believe it....”
”Well, what?” Gunderson exploded from his end.
”Sir,” the a.s.sistant gulped, ”the s.h.i.+p disappeared, just like that.”
”Nonsense!”
”No, sir. It did. The three crewmen are sprawled on the ground. Now two of them are getting up. There isn't a sign of the s.h.i.+p, the ramp, or anything.”
”Can't be. Has to be around somewhere.”
”No, sir. Isn't. Sorry to contradict you, sir. It isn't anywhere.”
”They probably set controls to send the s.h.i.+p back into s.p.a.ce, and jumped out before it took off. Search s.p.a.ce. You'll find it. s.h.i.+ps don't just disappear.”
”I'll search, of course. But this s.h.i.+p just disappeared.”
”All right, what's going on? What else?”
”They're naked. Naked as the day they were born. All four of them. Same as the colonists.”
”Keep track of where they put their clothes. Photograph it. Get the evidence.”
”Sir, their clothes disappeared right off their bodies. First they were fully dressed, Gray was, anyhow. Maybe the crew could have undressed inside the s.h.i.+p, but Gray was fully dressed--and then he wasn't. Just like that.”
”Hm-m.”