tely precarious his position stood, "Mr.
Raichi is accessible."

Lonnie was bland. Blandly accepting Jason's urgent story of a known ...
er ... jewel thief traced to the neighborhood. Blandly amenable to
Jason's suggestion that his men be permitted to go over the mansion
(once he'd started this damfool caper, he had to go through with it).
Lonnie so bland that Jason felt a skitter of perspiration down his
backbone while his men hustled up the soaring circle of the stair.

II

"Since I've been disturbed anyway," Lonnie offered, "I'll show you
around."

"Thanks," Jason shook his head stiffly. "I'll just wait."

"I think you should come."

Shrugging, Jason followed, eyes stubbornly downcast.

"... my library ... my den ... bar. Care for a drink? Well, suit
yourself." As the lights of the den dimmed and one wall swooshed
smoothly into the ceiling. "My theatre ... The usual tri-di stereo, of
course, but I've had a couple of the new tight beams installed to
channel Moon and Mars on the cube. Much better than the usual staged
bilge. Say, that reminds me, a couple hours ago Mars projector had a
scanner on one of the exploration parties caught out in a psychosonic
storm. Jove, did they wriggle! Even in atomsuits they were better than
Messalina Magdalen working on her last G-string. Here, I'll switch it
on. Maybe the rescue team's--"

Building up inside the hundreds of thousands of layers of crystallized
plastic came a reddish, three-dimensional landscape, as if viewed from a
height. Orange dust swirled across a gaunt, clawed plain under a
transparent pink haze. A feeling as of sub-visual vibration, emanating
from the cube, tugged at Jason's eyelids.

No life.

"--Nope; they've cleaned up the carcasses already. Too bad. Tell you
what, though. Next time I catch it happening, I'll phone you and--"

"Don't bother."

"Suit yourself." Lonnie shifted and went on, lightly. "I'm not at all
satisfied with the color, are you? It's off a little, don't you
think?... Well?... Well!"

Unwillingly, Jason moved his attention to the cube. Eyes widening, he
studied it. "No. You're wrong. That's good! The tech who poured that
stereo did a damned good job. It's--"

"Not good enough for me! That's not exactly what I saw up at Vulcan
City. If those lazy--"

"Look, you can't expect exactly the same reflectivity from crystallized
plastic that you get from molecules of atmosphere, no matter how
scientifically the pouring and layeri