connections to
class as grabber bait. The cops won't talk except to admit they were
tipped off about the raid. Which was obvious. The way they popped up out
of nowhere and closed in on those boys was a beautiful sight to see!"

"I," Trigger admitted, "didn't see it. When that car homed in, I yelled
a warning to the nearest bunch of students and dropped flat behind a
rock. By the time I risked a look, the cops had them."

"You showed very good sense," Plemponi told her earnestly. "I hope they
burn those thugs! Grabbing's a filthy business."

"That large object coming straight at you," Mihul observed calmly, "is
another aircar. In this lane it has the right of way. You do not have
the right of way. Got all that, Plemp?"

"Are you sure?" Doctor Plemponi asked her bewilderedly. "Confound it! I
shall blow my siren."

He did. Trigger winced. "There!" Plemponi said triumphantly as the other
driver veered off in fright.

Trigger told herself to relax. Aircars were so nearly accident-proof
that even Plemponi couldn't do more than snarl up traffic in one. "Have
there been other raids in the school area since I left?" she asked, as
he shot up out of the quadrangle and turned toward the balcony of his
office.

"That was just under four years ago, wasn't it?" Mihul said. "No, you
were still with us when we had the last one.... Six years back.
Remember?"

Trigger did. Two students had been picked up on that occasion--sons of
some Federation official. The grabbers had made a clean getaway, and it
had been several months later before she heard the boys had been
redeemed safely.

Plemponi descended to a teetery but gentle landing on the office
balcony. He gave Trigger a self-satisfied look. "See?" he said tersely.
"Let's go in, ladies. Had breakfast yet, Trigger?"

Trigger had finished breakfast a half-hour earlier, but she accepted a
cup of coffee. Mihul, all athlete, declined. She went over to Plemponi's
desk and stood leaning against it, arms folded across her chest, calm
blue eyes fixed thoughtfully on Trigger. With her lithe length of body,
Mihul sometimes reminded Trigger of a ferret, but the tanned face was a
pleasant one and there was humor around the mouth. Even in Trigger's
pregraduate days, she and Mihul had been good friends.

Doctor Plemponi removed a crammed breakfast tray from a wall chef, took
a chair across from Trigger, sat down with the tray on his knees,
excused himself, and began to eat and talk simul