"More or less by accident," the Commissioner said. "It was in connection with our second lead." "That's me, huh?" she said unhappily. "Yes." "Why would anyone want to grab me? I don't know anything." He shook his head. "We haven't found out yet. We're hoping we will, in a very few days." "Is that one of the things you can't tell me about?" "I can tell you most of what I know at the moment," said the Commissioner. "Remember the night we stopped off at Evalee on the way in from Manon?" "Yes," she said. "That big hotel!" 8 "About an hour after you'd decided to hit the bunk," Holati said, "I portaled back to your rooms to pick up some Precol reports we'd been setting up." Trigger nodded. "I remember the reports." "A couple of characters were working on your doors when I got there. They went for their guns, unfortunately. But I called the nearest Scout Intelligence office and had them dead-brained." "Why that?" she asked. "It could have been an accident--a couple of ordinary thugs. But their equipment looked a little too good for ordinary thugs. I didn't know just what to be suspicious of, but I got suspicious anyway." "That's you, all right," Trigger acknowledged. "What were they?" "They had an Evalee record which told us more than the brains did. They were high-priced boys. Their brains told us they'd allowed themselves to be mind-blocked on this particular job. High-priced boys won't do that unless they can set their standard price very much higher. It didn't look at all any more as if they'd come to your door by accident." "No," she admitted. "The Feds got in on it then. There'd been that business in Mantelish's lab. There were similarities in the pattern. You knew Mantelish. You'd been on Harvest Moon with him. They thought there could be a connection." "But what connection?" she protested. "I _know_ I don't know anything that could do anybody any good!" He shrugged. "I can't figure it either, Trigger girl. But the upshot of it was that I was put in charge of this phase of the general investigation. If there is a connection, it'll come out eventually. In any case, we want to know who's been trying to have you picked up and why." She studied his face with troubled eyes. "That's quite definite, is it?" she asked. "There couldn't possibly still be a mistake?" "No. It's definite." "So that's what the grabber business in the Colonial School yesterday was about...." He nodded. "It was their first try since the Evalee matter." "Why do you think they waited so long?" "Because they suspected you were being guarded. It's difficult to keep an adequate number of men around without arousing doubts in interested observers." Trigger glanced at the plasmoid. "That sounds," she remarked, "as if you'd let other interested observers feel you'd left them a good opening to get at Repulsive." He didn't quite smile. "I might have done that. Don't tell the Council."