Lindsay's jaw closed and he continued: "--been predicting it for a long time, Jenna." Then he laughed shortly and with just a bit of mirth. "I won't even let a Martian robomb interfere with what I intend to say." He became serious again. "No, Jenna, I think you're the only one who has been insisting that there will be a high-speed job coming along." Roberts nodded. "The boys at the driver labs claimed it couldn't be done." Jenna smiled. It was an elfin smile that brought out the unearthly beauty of the woman. "That's because I'm Martian," she said simply. "I know how their minds work." "That you do," assented Roberts, sipping his coffee. "No one but a Martian could have unpacked the Gooney." Lindsay's face paled slightly. Reference to the first and only fuse that Jenna had ever dissected brought goose pimples to him. Up to that particular time, the Martians had never included killing charges in the fuses themselves. Once the thing was out of the robomb, the fuse could not harm any one. But this diabolical jigsaw puzzle was different. And Jenna had handed the three pellets to Ralph and then fled. Lindsay followed her drawings, and they all knew that no one but a Martian could ever have been able to follow the mechanical labyrinth of that fuse in safety. Yet they all knew that she'd been safe where not one of them would have been, for if she'd not asked, amusedly, for permission, the Gooney would have taken them, one by one. The Gooney had been dissected and the robomb it came with had been fitted with a Terran fuse and shipped back. All hoped it would give Mars as much worry as it had caused Terra. * * * * * "I've tried detonating it, and naturally, no dice," said Roberts. "Better defuse it, then. You've hit it with everything?" "Everything but another atomic." "That's asking too much," said Lindsay. "They're packed to the limit with atomics now, and doubling the power--_brrrrr_." "Well," said Roberts with a slight smile, "my gear is in the battle buggy. Outside." "O.K.," said Lindsay. "We'll move back to a clearer area and set the recorders going. It's cold, for Haynes' outfit didn't so much as heat it on the way in. High-speed job for fair, and probably loaded with mercurite." * * * * * The ship sat down again far enough from the buildings so that the green actinic light from the force fields did not rise to dangerous levels. The pale glow gave enough light to make the television cameras usable without any other artificial means, though the shapeless blob that was the battle buggy and Jim Roberts was hard to keep from losing with the unaided eye. Roberts' voice came over the communicator. "O.K.? I'm about to go after that devil." "Go ahead, Jim," said Lindsay. A few beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. Jenna frowned. "It must be sheer hell to be like him."