Of course with this Geneva Jervis it was easy to lay himself open to the scathing comment and the barbed retort. He imagined she was extremely useful in her role as Girl Friday to Senator Bobby Thebold. "I don't think this is the work of those boobies at the booby hatch," she was saying. "I beg your pardon?" "The Cavalier Institution of Applied Foolishness, whatever they call it. They just wouldn't be capable of an undertaking of this scope." "Oh, I agree. That's why I let you drag me away from the meeting. It was a lot of pseudo-scientific malarkey. Old Doc Rubach, D.V.M., was going on about the ultimote being connected to the thighbone, way up in the middle of the air. Tell me, who do _you_ think is behind it all?" She was walking around the big-sided room as if taking mental inventory. There wasn't much to catalogue--six straight chairs, heavy and modern-looking, with a large wooden table, a framed piece of dark glass that might be a television set, and a gray steel box about the size and shape of a three-drawer filing cabinet. This last was near the big window-wall and had three black buttons on its otherwise smooth top. Don itched to push the buttons to see what would happen. Jen Jervis seemed to have the same urge. She drummed on the box with her long fingernails. "I?" she said. "Behind it all?" "Yes. What's your theory? Is this something for the Un-Earthly Activities Committee to investigate?" "Don't be impertinent. If the Senator thinks it's his duty to look into it, he will. He undoubtedly is already. In the meantime, I can do no less than gather whatever information I can while I'm on the scene." "Very patriotic. What do you conclude from your information-gathering so far?" "Obviously there's some kind of conspiracy--" she began, then stopped as if she suspected a trap. "--afoot," Don said with a grin. "As I see it, all you do is have Bobby the Bold subpoena everybody up here--every last man-jack of 'em--to testify before his committee. They wouldn't dare refuse." "I don't find you a bit amusing, Mr. Cort, though I have no doubt this sophomoric humor makes a big hit with your teen-age blonde. We'd better get back. I can see it was a mistake to expect any co-operation from you." "As you like, Madame Investigator." Don gave her a mock bow, then turned for a last look down at the vast segment of Earth below. Geneva Jervis screamed. He whirled to see her standing, big-eyed and open-mouthed, in front of the framed dark glass he had taken for a television screen. Her face was contorted in horror, and as Don's gaze flicked to the screen he had the barest glimpse of a pair of eyes fading with a dissolving image. Then the screen was blank and Don wasn't sure whether there had been a face to go with the eyes--an inhuman, un-earthly face--or whether his imagination had supplied it. The girl slumped to the floor in a faint. * * * * *