ng him his injection. He never felt the rocket tilt into firing
position, and while he slept, the Kharands language, with all its
vocabulary and grammar, became part of his subconscious knowledge,
needing only the mental pronunciation of a trigger-symbol to bring it
into consciousness. The pilot was already unfastening and raising his
helmet when he opened his eyes. Dalla, beside him, was sipping a cup
of spiced wine.

On the landing stage of the Sector-Regional Headquarters at Novilan
Equivalent, four or five people were waiting for them. Vall recognized
the subchief, Vulthor Tharn, who introduced another man, in riding
boots and a white cloak, as Skordran Kirv. Vall clasped hands with him
warmly.

"Good work, Agent Skordran. You got onto this promptly."

"I tried to, sir. Do you want the dope now? We have half an hour's
flight to our spatial equivalent, and another half hour in
transposition."

"Give it to me on the way," he said, and turned to Vulthor Tharn.
"Our Esaron costumes ready?"

"Yes. Over there in the control tower. We have a temporary conveyer
head set up about two hundred miles south of here, which will take you
straight through to the plantation."

"Suppose you change now, Dalla," he said. "Subchief, I'd like a word
with you privately."

He and Vulthor Tharn excused themselves and walked over to the edge of
the landing stage. The SecReg Subchief was outwardly composed, but
Vall sensed that he was worried and embarrassed.

"Now, what's been done since you got Agent Skordran's report?" Vall
asked.

"Well, sir, it seems that this is more serious than we had
anticipated. Field Agent Skordran, who will give you the particulars,
says that there is every indication that a large and well-organized
gang of paratemporal criminals, our own people, are at work. He says
that he's found evidence of activities on Fourth Level Kholghoor that
don't agree with any information we have about conditions on that
sector."

"Beside transmitting Agent Skordran's report to Dhergabar through the
robot report-system, what have you done about it?"

"I confirmed Agent Skordran in charge of the local investigation, and
gave him two detectives and a psychist, sir. As soon as we could
furnish hypno-mech indoctrination in Kharanda to other psychists, I
sent them along. He now has four of them, and eight detectives. By
that time, we had a conveyer head right at this Consolidated Outtime
Foodstuffs plantation."

"Why didn