said.
"Otherwise we'd be stuck down there." He laughed. "You look like a
jack in the box--all coiled up ready to spring out."

But I was in no mood for humor. Somehow I felt that I'd been conned.
"What do I get out of this?" I demanded.

"A whole skin--at least for awhile."

"That won't do me any good unless I can take it somewhere."

"Don't worry," Redman said. "They don't give a damn about you. It's me
they want, turn on your radio and see."

I flipped the switch and a voice came into the control room--"remind
you that this is a Galactic emergency! The Patrol has announced that
an inhabitant of Earth has been on Mars! This individual is
dangerously radioactive. A reward of one hundred thousand Galactic
munits will be paid to the person who gives information leading to his
death or capture. I repeat,--_one hundred thousand munits_! The man's
description is as follows: Height 180 centimeters, weight 92
kilograms, eyes reddish brown, hair red. A peculiarity which makes him
easily recognized is the red color of his skin. He is armed with a
nuclear weapon and is dangerous. When last seen he was leaving
Marsport spacefield. Starflite class yacht, registration number CY
127439. He has a citizen with him, probably a hostage. If seen, notify
the nearest Patrol ship."

* * * * *

I looked at Redman. The greed must have shone from me like a beacon.
"A hundred grand!" I said softly.

"Try and collect," Redman said.

"I'm not going to," I said and turned three separate plans to capture
him over in my head.

"They won't work," Redman said. He grinned nastily. "And don't worry
about radioactivity. I'm no more contaminated than you are."

"Yeah?--and just how do you live on that hotbox without being
contaminated?" I asked.

"Simple. The surface isn't too hot in the first place. Most of the
stuff is in the Van Allen belts. Second, we live underground. And
third we're protected."

"How?"

"Where do you think this red skin comes from? It isn't natural. Even
you should know that. Actually we had the answer to protection during
the Crazy Years before the blowup when everybody talked peace and
built missiles. A bacteriologist named Anderson discovered it while
working with radiation sterilized food. He isolated a whole family of
bacteria from the food that not only survived, but lived normally in
the presence of heavy doses of radiation. The microbes all had one
thing in common--a peculiar