"I thought," Trigger said without squeaking, "that everybody was pretty sure it was dead." Quillan frowned. "Well, that's something else again! There are at least two ways I know of to sneak it past that search. Jump it out and in with a subtub is one--they could have done that from their own cabin as soon as they had its pattern. So I don't really think it's dead. It's just--" "Quillan," a tiny voice said from the viewer. He turned, took two steps, and sat down fast before the viewer. "Go ahead!" "Fast motion in B section. Going your way." Fast motion. A thought flicked up. "Quillan--" Trigger began. He raised a shushing hand. "Get a silhouette?" he asked. His hands went to a set of control switches and stayed there. "No. Pickup shows a haze like in the reconstruct." An instant's pause. "Leaving B section." "Motion in C section," said another voice. Quillan said, "All right. It's coming. No more verbal reports unless it changes direction. If you want to stay alive, don't move unless you're in armor." There was silence. Quillan sat unmoving, eyes fixed on the screen. Trigger stood just behind him. Her legs had begun to tremble. She'd better tell him. "Quillan--" For an instant, in the screen, there was something like heat shimmer at the far end of the passage. Then she saw her cabin door pop open. The interior of the cabin showed in a brief flare of blue light. In it was a shape. It vanished instantly again. She heard Quillan make a shocked, incredulous sound. His left hand slashed at a switch on the panel. Twenty feet from them, just behind the closed door to the passage, was a splatting noise like a tremendous slap. Then another noise, strangely like a brief cloudburst. Then silence again. She realized Quillan was on his feet beside her, the oversized gun in his hand. It was pointed at the door. His eyes switched suddenly from the door to the screen and back again. She felt him relaxing slowly. Then she discovered she was clutching a handful of his shirt along with a considerable chunk of tough skin. She went on clutching it. "Fly swatter got it!" he said. "Whew!" He looked down and patted the clutching hand. "No catassin! The trap in the cabin just wasn't fast enough. Had a gravity mine outside our door, just in case. _That_ was barely fast enough!" For once, Quillan looked almost awed. "L-l-l-like--" Trigger began. She tried again. "Like a little yellow man--" "You saw it? In the cabin? Yes. Never saw anything just like it before!" Trigger pressed her lips together to make them stay steady. "I have," she said. "That's what I was trying to tell you." Quillan stared at her for an instant. "You'll tell me about it in a couple of minutes. I've got some quick work to do first." He checked himself. A wide grin spread suddenly over his face. "Know something, doll?" "What?" "The damn computers!" Major Quillan said happily. "They goofed!" * * * * *