"Red goes to the right hand," he muttered. "Green to the left. Or is it the other way around?" Making up his mind that red went to the right, he closed his fingers around the ends of the plastic tube, then watched the tiny meter on top of the small box that contained the transmitter. The needle moved on the dial. "Calling nine dash nine," he spoke. "This is six one calling nine dash nine." He repeated the call three times, then sat back on his haunches to await an answer. "Come in six one," the earphone said. "What color is red?" "It's green this week," Zen answered promptly. "What color was it last week?" "Last week? Um. Oh, yes. No color." "And that means--" "White. This is Kurt Zen, colonel, intelligence, reporting. Connect me immediately with General Stocker." Satisfied with the identity of the caller, the operator said, "Just a minute, colonel, I'll see if the general will talk to you." "Tell him it's important," Zen urged. "They always say that," the operator sighed. "I'll put you through as soon as I can." "Kurt, boy, where are you?" General Stacker's voice boomed into a distant microphone. The general's voice always boomed, he was always hearty, he was always sure that while things might look black right now, they would work out all right in the end. By the time the booming voice reached Zen's earphone, it had been transformed into a tinny squeak. Kurt thought he detected an uneasy note in the squeak and he wondered if the general had finally glimpsed the end, and was finding it not quite as he had supposed. "In hell, general," Zen answered. He swiftly told where he was and what had happened. "Cuso's blooper knocked out the last pass by which we can bring an effective force against him. This whole area is loaded with radiation." "How will we ever root that bastard out of his hole now?" "That's for the staff to decide. I have more important news." "Yes? Talk, Kurt, and fast. You don't mean that you--" "Yes. I mean I think this nurse may be it. I don't know yet." Zen explained what had happened. "Damn it, Kurt, do you mean to tell me that if she comes back alive, you will know she is immune to the radiation, and hence must be one of the new people? But if she comes back dead, or so loaded with radiation that she will die within a few days, then you will know she was just like all the rest of us?" Even through Zen's earphone, the general's voice had begun to boom. "That's the way I see it," Zen answered. "But goddammit--Are you hurt, Kurt?" The general's voice was suddenly solicitous. "Are you all right?" "Damn it, I'm in my right mind," Zen answered. "I was in a prospect hole when the blast went off. Don't you think I've got enough sense to take cover?" Stocker's suddenly solicitous attitude irritated him. "Sorry, sir," he apologized an instant later. "It's quite all right, boy. I know that nerves get frayed in combat. But this nurse--"