There were more drinks. Many more drinks. The girl kept them coming, kept talking to him about--what was it? Craig looked at the girl and then at the globe lamp. He watched as the tiny bright orbs of light projected their images on the girl opposite him. He was aware of the gradual dimming of the lights, the suppression of sound in the bar. He watched the tiny lights of other globes appear around shadows, watched as the lights traced fiery trails across the dusky skin of the girl opposite him, watched as they crossed the warm, rounded flesh.... * * * * * "_I tell ya we didn't give him nothing but a coupla tazes._" "_The pump will determine that. You might as well tell the truth._" "_I am tellin' the truth. He drank, let's see ... two, three._" "_Four, five, six. You let her pump him full._" "_Hey, look, this guy's a spaceman, or was._" "_I didn't know that. Honest I didn't. He never told us._" "_All right, you didn't know. What you put in those tazes--ether?_" "_We denature the polyester just like the law says._" "_And you get it straight from M'cadii, eh?_" "_We put in some syn. So what? That ain't against the law._" "_He's probably got grav trouble, Chief._" "_Who was the girl?_" "_Girl? What girl?_" "_You know what girl!_" "_Just a girl, like a million of 'em these days._" "_Professional?_" "_There ain't any any more. You know, sensatia-tapes._" "_Know her name?_" "_I don't ask no names. How you going to know names? She's a girl. Just like ten million of 'em these days._" "_What you think a guy like this is doing here, Chief?_" "_Why not?_" "_Well, look at his clothes. He's got units, too. Can't figure that out. She must've been after something else._" "_How about his clothing and food tickets?_" "_Uh ... that's it. She got his tickets._" "_Come on, give me a hand. Lug him into the hold._" * * * * * The hard face of the Civil Control chief peered down at him. It was a thick, red face that displayed no trace of feeling except perhaps toughness. It was long yet full, and it contained the proper features; but it added nothing of expression to the harsh, rasping voice. "First time in, eh? Or else Central's too damned lazy to check the file. Okay, I ain't going to cite you. Waste of time. But listen to me. You got problems, we got problems. You solve yours and don't come back here." Craig was aware of officers glowering at his back as he fumbled with the door button. The door opened onto a city street. It was entirely foreign to Craig. It was not a clean, straight thoroughfare at the bottom of a canyon of towering white buildings and contrived but bright parks. It was an old street, a dirty street; an incredible welter of color and line, of big and little shops, of dirty human shapes in drab gray. A flood of tone and noise hit Craig as he emerged from the station and descended the long, broad steps.