rk and very
enthusiastic about his work. He sat straight in his chair waiting
attentively while his superior across the desk leafed through a folder.

"Jordan. Tom Jordan," the older man finally said. "A nice old Earth
name. I suppose your folks came from there."

"Yes, sir," the new man said briskly.

The chief closed the folder.

"Well," he said, "your first job is a pretty important one."

"I realize that, sir," Jordan said. "I know it's a great responsibility
for a man just starting with the Commission, but I'll give it every
thing I have."

The chief leaned back in his seat and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Normally we start a beginner like you working in a pair with an older
man. But we just haven't got enough men to go around. There are eight
thousand planets there"--he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to
a wall-sized map of the galaxy--"and we've got to cover every one. It
seems reasonable that if he escaped this planet, he'll go to another
that will by its atmosphere or its temperature give him some natural
advantage over us--some place that is either burning hot or at absolute
zero, or perhaps with a chlorine or sulfur dioxide atmosphere. That's
why"--he hesitated a minute, but continued because he was a truthful
man--"I picked you for Earth. It's the most populated of all the planets
and it seems the least likely one that he would choose."

Jordan's face dropped a little bit when he heard the last piece of
information, but he said: "I understand, sir, and if he's there, I'll
bring him back."

The chief slouched farther back in his seat. He picked up a shard of
rubidium that served as a paper weight and toyed with it.

"I guess you know most of the facts. They are made out of permallium.
Have you ever seen any of the stuff?"

The new man shook his head. "I read about it though--some new alloy,
isn't it?"

"Plenty new. It's the hardest stuff anybody has ever made. If you set
off one hundred successive atom blasts over a lump of permallium, you
might crystallize and scale maybe a micron off the surface. It will
stand any temperature or pressure we can produce. That just means
there's no way to destroy it."

Jordan nodded. He felt a little honored that the chief was giving him
this explanation in person rather than just turning him over to one of
the scientific personnel for a briefing. He did not understand that the
old man was troubled and was talking the situation through as much f