"Huh?" said Orrin, seeming to come out of a daze. "What's missing?" Goil slowed down a bit. "One gravity generator and one sub-space energizer, Mr. Orrin. One each of these items is used for each vaporizing process. And you have one too few vaporizing projects on record. And one each gravity generator and energizer unsigned for, completely unaccounted for--so far." "What do you mean, 'so far'?" I asked. "Have you any idea how we can account for these two items?" "I have indeed," said Goil. "I don't understand," said Orrin in a helpless tone. "How could anyone lose or misplace anything as big as those? It doesn't make sense." I was glad Orrin had put the question that way. "Precisely," said Goil. "I don't believe someone did misplace or lose those items. I believe someone took them for a purpose." "That's ridiculous!" snapped Orrin. "Out here in space? For what?" "Maybe we'll learn soon," said Goil. "One William Maloon should be on his way here right now to do some explaining." I turned cold all over. What had Willy done to expose himself so? I wondered. Aloud I said: "What has Willy to do with this, Mr. Goil? Willy is one of our best men, completely trustworthy." "A hard worker and really ambitious," added Orrin. "No doubt," Goil said acidly. "Ambitious to his own ends. I've checked Mr. Maloon's personnel records and I found some interesting things. Mr. Maloon is not any sort of qualified engineer. Or even an expert technician. Why, he's not even a good journeyman of any trade. His only approach to some sort of claim to formal training is a single correspondence course!" "He's a good hard-working technician!" defended Orrin. "Sure," said Goil. "He learned the hard way. Through experience," he added sarcastically. "Can you tell me, Mr. Orrin, exactly what is Mr. Maloon's job here?" "He's an engineer fill-in," said Orrin with a trace of doubt in his voice. "He's on call and handy for just about any job around here." "In a limited capacity, no doubt," Goil said dryly. "And he apparently does a lot of jobs around here he's not expected to do. A check of your tool cribs and equipment storage shows that Maloon has had his hands on just about everything you have available at one time or another since he has been here. Mr. Maloon is a very busy man during his off-duty hours, it seems." "What has this to do with calling Willy in about the missing energizer and generator?" I ventured to ask. "Part of a suspicion," Goil said. "Maloon's use of company tools and equipment increased just before the disappearance of those two pieces of equipment. It may be significant or it may not. What is significant is this: everybody having access to supply and equipment was out participating in one way or another in the operation the other day. It seems that everybody can be accounted for but Maloon. He could easily have had time to get unauthorized items out of supply." "This is fantastic!" snorted Orrin. * * * * *