o take
instructions from Joe. Joe said curtly: "You're to snag as many Security
men as you can, place them more or less out of sight under the Platform
here, and tell them to turn off their walkie-talkies and wait. No matter
what happens, they're to wait right here until they're needed, right
here!"

He looked harassedly around him. The Security man nodded and moved
casually away. This was close timing. Something made Joe look up. He saw
the catwalk gallery nearly overhead. The expected guard was there.
Haney, though, was with him. There was nothing else in sight. Not yet.
But Haney was on the job. Joe saw a Security man step out of sight in
the scaffolding. He saw his own assigned security man speak to another,
who wandered casually toward the Platform's base.

Minutes passed. Only Joe could have noticed, because he was watching for
it. There were eight or nine Security men posted within call. They had
their walkie-talkies turned off and would be subject only to his orders
if an emergency arose.

Gongs began to ring all around the edge of the Shed. They set up a
horrendous clanging. This was not an alarm, but simply the notice of
change-of-shift time.

There was a marked change in the noises overhead. A crane pulled back.
Hammerings dwindled and stopped. There were the sounds of pipes,
combined to form the scaffolds, being taken apart for removal. A
sling-load of pipe touched the floor and stayed there. The crane's
internal-combustion motor stopped. Its operator stepped down to the
floor and headed for the exit. Hoists descended and men moved across the
floor. Other men scrambled down ladders. The floor became dotted with
figures moving toward the doors through which men went out to get on the
busses for Bootstrap.

Nothing happened. More long minutes passed. The shift brought out by the
busses was going through the check-over process in the incoming screen
room. Joe knew that Major Holt had, within the past five minutes,
gathered together a tight-knit bunch of armed security men to be
available for anything that might turn up. The men doing the normal
shift-change screening were shorthanded in consequence.

The floor next to the exits became crowded, but the central area of the
floor was cleared. One truck was stalled at the swing-up truck doors.
Its driver ground the starter insistently.

Suddenly there was a high-pitched yell away up on the Platform. Then
there was a shot. Its echoes rang horribly in the re