ast.

Jadiver went to the screen. There could be no hesitation; the decision
was ready-made.

The bank robot appeared on the screen and Jadiver spoke to him briefly,
requesting that his account be cleared. He scribbled his signature and
had it recorded.

* * * * *

While waiting, he began to pack, sorting what he wanted to take. It
wasn't much, some special clothing. His equipment, except for a few
small tools, he had to leave. No matter. With luck, he could replace it;
without luck, he wouldn't need it.

In a few minutes he was ready, but the money hadn't arrived. He sat down
and nervously scrawled on a scrap of paper. Presently the delivery chute
clattered and the money was in it, crisp new bills neatly wrapped, the
total of his savings over the years. He stuffed the money in his pocket.

The scrap of paper was still in his hand. He started to throw it away,
but his fingers were reluctant to let it go. He stared curiously at the
crumpled wad and on impulse smoothed it out.

There were words on it, though he hadn't remembered writing any. The
handwriting was shaky and stilted, as if he were afflicted with some
nervous disease; nevertheless, it was unmistakably his own.

There was a message on it, from himself to himself. No, not from
himself. But it was intended that he read it. The note said:

RUN, JADIVER. I'LL HELP.
YOUR FRIEND

He sat down. A picture rose involuntarily in his mind: The face was that
of Doumya Filone.

He couldn't prove it, but it seemed certain that she was the one. She
knew about the circuit, of course, had known long before he did. He
remembered the incident when his skin had itched.

He had called her about it and she hadn't seemed surprised. She had left
the screen for some time--for what purpose? To adjust the mechanism, or
have someone else adjust it. The last, probably; the mechanism was
almost certainly at the police end, and at the time he called she had
been at home. In any event, the mechanism had originally been set too
strong and she had ordered the setting to be reduced. That suggested one
thing: the power to activate the circuit came from the mechanism--a
radarlike device.

Then what? His skin had momentarily become translucent, allowing him to
see the circuit. How she achieved that, he didn't know, but the reason
was obvious. It had been her way of warning him and it had worked.

The message in his hand told him one thing. He