of his
homicidal plans; and how it happened that Hanlon carried a supply of
poison. There had been no indication that either question had occurred
to Panek.

Chapter 10

The moment he got off the ship and went into the city of New Athens he
could feel it. There was an air of mystery, of secretiveness, of
intrigue, that could not help but be noticed by one as sensitive to
emotion-impressions as SS Man George Hanlon.

He got out of his ground-cab at the entrance of a great park in the
center of the city, but directed the driver to take his luggage on to
the hotel. Then Hanlon went in to sit on a bench beneath a beautiful,
flowering ba'amba tree.

Once there, he opened his mind to its fullest extent, and let all the
impressions and sensations of this new world soak in. He could not, of
course, get any factual details in this way, nor did he expect to. What
he wanted, and began to get, was the "feel" of the city. And the longer
he sat the less he liked it.

For he could sense so clearly that there most certainly was "a Mercutian
in the fuel pit" here somewhere. But what it was; what this strange
feeling portended, he could not quite make out.

He noticed, casually, that there were the usual idlers in this park, and
hundreds of children with their nurses or parents. But there were none
of the derelicts one sees in so many large-city parks. Most of the
people seemed well-dressed and not too poor. He could catch occasional
bits of thought about big business deals.

After a time Hanlon noticed that here, as in most parks, hundreds of
native, pigeon-like birds were flying and hopping about, seeking what
crumbs they could scrounge from picnickers' lunches, or nuts fed them by
interested idlers.

He wondered if he could get into a bird's mind, and sent his out to
contact one. His ability was, he found, much the same as it had been
with the dogs--he could not only "read" what mind the pigeon had, but
could control it ... could actually project part of his mind into the
bird's brain.

The brain-texture, was different, but as he sat there for another hour,
he learned the difference. For now he knew what to look for, and it did
not take long until he knew it well. Finally he got so he could see and
understand what the people around him were doing--not through his own
direct observation, but through the pigeon's senses. He sent several
winging high into the air, and got a good perspective of the entire
city.

At