Then he gave me a headwaiter's smile and went on his way. I went on out through the ornate doors of the _Seven Sisters_. * * * * * When I got back to my apartment, I looked it over carefully. It didn't look as though anyone had made an unauthorized search. I called Marty, and he assured me that the men watching the place had seen no one go in. But I was already fairly certain that the purpose of Mr. Venuccio's appointment had not been to lure me away from my apartment. He wanted me to go a lot farther than that. I drank a couple more beers and smoked four or five cigarettes while I thought things through, then I got ready for bed, cut the lights, and went to sleep. * * * * * The next morning, I showed up at Viking's Testing Area Four with a hot breakfast inside me and my vac suit outside, ready to go sky-climbing with McGuire. McGuire's tall blue spire shone brightly in the sunlight, and looked, as he always did, as though ready to take the leap at any time. There would be only five of us aboard. Besides myself, there was the short, chubby Ellsworth Felder, head of the robotics staff; the boyish Irwin Brentwood; the tough, taciturn Theodore Videnski; and the lovely Vivian Devereaux. We made the last-minute checks to make sure everything was ready for the hop to Phobos, and then I took command. "Plot a one-gee orbit to Phobos, McGuire. Take-off in five minutes." "Yes, sir," said McGuire. He thought for a minute, then said: "Course plotted, sir." "Good." I glanced at Brentwood, who had set up his instruments in a semipermanent installation for the trip. "Did you get that, Brentwood?" He nodded. "All right, McGuire; we're going to be doing a few tests out in space, so, for right now, just follow the curve of the first half--up to five minutes before turnover. I'll let you know what to do then. Warn me at five minutes before turnover; otherwise, just keep going until I give you further orders." "Yes, sir." "How much longer until take-off time?" "Three and a half minutes, sir." "Begin a countdown at minus thirty seconds. One count every five seconds until minus five seconds, one count per second from there to zero. Lift at zero." "Yes, sir." We got everything settled, made sure there were no loose tools lying around, and sat down in the lounge chairs to wait for the lift. Pretty soon, McGuire said: "Minus thirty seconds." Finally, he said "Five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... zero." And we all sank down in the chairs, under the pull of a full Standard Gee of acceleration--one thousand centimeters per second squared. Ceres fell away from beneath us and slowly receded in the vast blackness of space.