r too valuable to abandon. But, apparently, these things had been
left temporarily in Goat's abandonment of Ultra Vires and would be
picked up by truck later.

Deriving a certain humorous satisfaction from taking over the master's
chamber, Dark curled up on Goat's bed and went to sleep.

He awoke the next morning with the glare of the desert sunlight
reflected into the room. He arose, stretched and yawned. The room was a
mess. Goat had left the bed clothing intact, but he had turned
everything else upside down in packing his personal effects to leave the
place.

There was still water in the reservoir, and Ultra Vires' plumbing system
was still in operation. Dark bathed. He felt ruefully at the thick
stubble of beard that had overgrown his face in the past few days, but
Goat had left no shaving equipment behind.

Dark made his way down to the big kitchen. There were supplies of canned
food there, and he found utensils and ate. He was hungry, but not
ravenous, and this surprised him a little, because he had had no food
since he started out afoot from the Canfell Hydroponic Farm, four nights
ago. But he was no hungrier than he would normally be after a night's
sleep.

As he ate, his eye fell on dishes stacked beside the sink. He was
startled to notice that water still sparkled on them.

He arose and checked them. Yes, they were still wet.

There were remnants of fresh food in the garbage can.

People, here? Camping out? Or, more likely, someone passing through the
desert who had taken shelter here for the night? But he thought he would
have heard the roar of a groundcar leaving.

Thoughtfully, Dark finished his breakfast. It occurred to him that
perhaps some members of the Phoenix had taken refuge here after fleeing
Mars City. But most of them did not even know of the existence of Ultra
Vires, much less its location.

At any rate, there was no reason to assume that anyone who happened to
be here would be unfriendly to him, in case they met by chance. He saw
no reason to worry about it.

Finishing breakfast, Dark went down to the storeroom and picked out
three marsuits, for Old Beard, Happy and Shadow. There was a large-sized
suit there that he thought might accommodate Happy's bulk, but he
wondered how Shadow, with his flat build, was going to manage one.

Nakedness felt quite natural to Dark, especially since he remembered his
identity as Brute, but it occurred to him that it would look peculiar
to anyone h