law allowed. Did
the ordinary man on the street submit calmly when this happened to his
wife or did he have contacts that Greg had never known?

Still, it seemed unlikely that many persons could escape the law. Every
nation on Earth cooperated to send cancerous persons to Mars, not only
to breed the disease out of Earth, but to relieve the tremendous
pressure of a growing population. The effort was succeeding, even though
it was taking much of Earth's resources to send the people and supplies
to Mars, even though the project had delayed the opening of colonization
on a real paradise planet, Venus.

Pulling into the apartment's parking cell, Greg rode the elevator to his
floor.

The apartment was dark and silent. A single lamp glowed faintly on the
living room desk, and then he saw the note beside the viewphone.

"I didn't exactly lie about the date of my passage," the note said, "but
I misled you. The children and I went at noon today. It's the best way.
We couldn't stand the torture of a week, so I asked for immediate
passage. Try to smuggle through a message to the children and me later
on, but don't try to do anything more dangerous. I pray that someday the
laws will change and we'll see each other again." There were a few more
lines of writing, but they had been carefully scratched out. Dora's
signature, barely recognizable in its shakiness, was at the bottom of
the paper....

* * * * *

The smoke in the tavern was too thick to permit easy breathing. But Greg
had been choking somewhere deep inside before he had wandered into the
place. He placed his glass carefully over the well in the counter,
pressed the stud at the edge of the counter, and watched the mixed drink
squirt up through the patent bottom of the glass. There was a slight
click as the bottom tightened automatically, the price appeared on the
inset beside the stud, and Greg drank. Then he put down the glass, aware
that the man beside him was studying him intently.

"There comes a time," the man said carefully, "when the fingers refuse
to clench the glass with sufficient resistance. At that point, you begin
to pass out." The stranger raised his glass with only slight effort, and
watched Greg apply time and thought to the same procedure.

"You remind me of the way some doctors talk," Greg said.

"I never forget a patient," the stranger said, peering intently at Greg,
"and you aren't one of mine, even though you're n