what we're doing at all. Why, the whole trouble with the apparatus was the fault of the operator. We'll have to have it back immediately, all of it."
"I see, Dr. Ortheris." The old instrument maker looked worried. "But I'm afraid the apparatus has already gone to the workroom. Mr. Stephenson has it now, and I can't get in touch with him at present. If the mistake can be corrected, what do you want done?"
"Just hold it; I'll call or send for it."
She blanked the screen. Old Johnson, the chief data synthesist tried to detain her with some question.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson. I can't stop now. I have to go over to Company House right away."
The suite at the Hotel Mallory was crowded when Jack Holloway returned with Gerd van Riebeek; it was noisy with voices, and the ventilators were laboring to get rid of the tobacco smoke. Gus Brannhard, Ben Rainsford and Baby Fuzzy were meeting the press.
"Oh, Mr. Holloway!" somebody shouted as he entered. "Have you found them yet?"
"No; we've been all over Science Center from top to bottom. We know they went down a few floors from where they'd been caged, but that's all. I don't think they could have gotten outside; the only exit on the ground level's through a vestibule where a Company policeman was on duty, and there's no way for them to have climbed down from any of the terraces or landing stages."
"Well, Mr. Holloway, I hate to suggest this," somebody else said, "but have you eliminated the possibility that they may have hidden in a trash bin and been dumped into the mass-energy converter?"
"We thought of that. The converter's underground, in a vault that can be entered only by one door, and that was locked. No trash was disposed of between the time they were brought there and the time the search started, and everything that's been sent to the converter since has been checked piece by piece."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that, Mr. Holloway, and I know that everybody hearing this will be glad, too. I take it you've not given up looking for them?"
"Are we on the air now? No, I have not; I'm staying here in Mallorysport until I either find them or am convinced that
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