ran across his path, chasing a small
rodent. He heard a wild tumult begin, minutes later. When he passed the
spot where they had stopped, a fight was going on, apparently over the
kill.

At noon he stopped to drink sparingly of his water and eat one of the
incredibly bad biscuits. What food there was available or which could
be received from the Earth freighters was being mixed into them, but it
wasn't enough. The workers got a little more, and occasionally someone
found a few cans under the rubble. The penalty for not turning such
food in was revocation of all food allotment, but there was a small
black market where unidentified cans could be bought for five Earth
dollars, and some found its way there. The same black market sold the
few remaining cigarettes at twice that amount each.

It was beginning to thunder to the north as he stood up and went
wearily on, and the haze was thickening. He tried to hurry, uncertain
of how dark it would get. If he got caught now, he'd never be able to
return before night. He stumbled on a broken street sign, decoding what
was left of it, and considered. Then he sighed in relief. As he
remembered it, he was almost there.

The buildings had been lower here, and the rubble was thinner. There
seemed to be more people about, judging by the traces of smoke that
drifted out of holes or through glassless windows. He saw none outside,
however.

He was considering trying one of the places from which smoke was coming
when he saw the little boy five hundred feet ahead. He started forward,
but the kid popped into what must have been a cellar once. Duke
stopped, calling quietly.

This time it was a girl of about sixteen who appeared. She sidled
closer, her eyes fixed on his hair. Her voice piped out suddenly,
scared and desperate. "You lonesome, Earthman?" Under the fright, it
was a grotesque attempt at coquetry. She edged nearer, staring at him.
"I won't roll you, honest!"

"All I want is information," he told her thickly. "I'm looking for a
woman named Ronda--Ronda O'Neill. She was my wife."

The girl considered, shaking her head. Her eyes grew wider as he pulled
out a green Earth bill, but she didn't move. Then, as he added the two
remaining biscuits, she nodded quickly, motioning him forward. "Mom
might know," she said.

She ran ahead, and soon an older woman shuffled up the broken steps. In
her arms was a baby, dead or in a coma, and she rocked it slowly,
moaning softly as she liste