build some silly gadget, even
if he has to steal to do it. And the inevitable end that sometimes
quite obviously prevents injury, and other times leaving the results a
mystery. Once the purpose has been accomplished, Willy loses all
interest. I have histories, documented cases of Willy's influence.
Files of tape recordings of his synergisms in action. And these files
all show a definite pattern."

"Let's hear some of your recordings, and read some of your documents,"
said Goil.

And that was how we spent the next four hours.

* * * * *

Of course, I had juggled the computations I had shown Goil a little
bit. And made the course of the asteroid look like it would coincide
with that of the freighter. If I hadn't, Goil would never have given
me the time I needed.

Art Jones had kept the news of the freighter coming in all day. It was
still on course for Mars. About a half-hour before the freighter crew
was due to leave the ship, the rec room was crowded with men waiting
to watch the escape of the crew.

There hadn't been time enough to get a ship in the area that could
blast the freighter off course. And there hadn't been any ship even on
Mars equipped for such action, not even an old slightly serviceable
derelict that could be placed in the runaway ship's path for
deflection.

The long-range scope still had the runaway ship in focus. It looked
like a little painted miniature in the trideo, with a very slowly
moving spangled background. A faint superimposed image of Mars
appeared. The announcer was talking about forces, vectors, and other
navigational terminology, plus nonsensical chatter of probability
factors. The picture faded and was replaced with an artist's animated
conception of the impending tragedy. It showed the present location of
the ship, the calculated course and trajectory of the ship through the
atmosphere to the point of impact--right in the center of the
industrial area. It ended with a big question mark before the image of
the ship returned.

During the sequence of the collision course, I was trying in my mind
to figure out just how far off Willy's asteroid would be. I could
figure it roughly in my head, remembering the original figures I'd
gotten from Artie. The asteroid would be no fewer than a million and a
half miles from the runaway ship, at its nearest point. Besides, it
wouldn't emerge from sub-space until it was near Earth, a good seventy
million miles