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The point of it, Holati Tate explained, was that this had been more activity than 113-A normally displayed over a period of a week. And 113-A was easily the most active plasmoid of them all nowadays. "It is, of course, possible," Mantelish said, arousing from deep thought, "that it was attracted by your body odor." "Thank you, Mantelish!" said Trigger. "You're welcome, my dear."
Trigger said. The transmitter signaled for attention while she was studying the report. Holati Tate went off to answer it. The report was rather lengthy, and Trigger was still going over it when he got back. He sat down again and waited. When she looked up finally, he asked, "Can you make much sense of it?" "Not very much," Trigger admitted. "It just states what seems to have happened.
"I was getting pretty angry with you," she admitted. "More or less with everybody. Then I applied for a transfer, and the application bounced from Evalee! I figured I'd had enough and that I'd just quietly clear out. So I did or thought I did." "Can't blame you," said Holati. Trigger said, "I still think it would have been smarter to keep me informed right from the start of what was going on."
"He can't do that, and he knows it!" He reached for the desk transmitter. "Don't bother, Commissioner. I told Mantelish I'd been put in charge of Repulsive, and that he'd lose an arm if he tried to walk out of the lab with him." Holati cleared his throat. "I see! How did Mantelish react?" "Oh, he huffed a bit. Like he does.
Trigger reached out and poked the Commissioner's knee. "Hey, Holati!" she whispered. "Wake up." His eyes opened. He looked at her and smiled. "Back again, eh?" he said. Trigger motioned at the door. "Close it," she whispered. "Got something to tell you." "Talk away," he said. "Quillan's piloting, the First Lady's out cold, and Mantelish got dive-sick and I doped him. Nobody else on board."
"Does Mantelish have any idea why Repulsive is the only plasmoid known to which our ring detectors don't react?" "Apparently he does," Holati said. "But when he starts in on those subjects, I find him difficult to follow." He looked soberly at Trigger. "There are times," he confessed, "when I suspect Professor Mantelish is somewhat daft.
"Just how far did we get in bringing you up to date yesterday?" the Commissioner asked. "The remains that weren't Doctor Azol," Trigger said. If it hadn't been for the funny business with Trigger, Holati said, he mightn't have been immediately skeptical about Doctor Azol's supposed demise by plasmoid during a thrombosis-induced spell of unconsciousness.
Mantelish, Holati Tate, Lyad and Trigger stayed at camp. Luscious looked very lonely. "It isn't just the king plasmoid they're hoping to catch there," the Commissioner told Trigger. "And I wouldn't care, frankly, if the thing stayed lost the next few thousand years. But we had a very odd report last week.
They came walking back into the ship around half an hour later. Both faces looked rather white and strained. "Lyad has something she wants to tell you, Holati," Trigger said. "Where's Mantelish?" "In his lab. Taking a nap, I believe." "That's good. We don't want him here for this. Go ahead, Lyad. Just the important stuff. You can give us the details after we've left."
A girl had a right to consider her own interests. And there was the completely gruesome possibility now that Holati Tate might call in at any moment, give her an entirely reasonable, satisfactory, valid, convincing explanation for everything that had happened lately and then show her why it would be absolutely necessary for her to stay here a while longer.
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