k and dropped a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Rick
and I will do the final electronics check, just as we did on Orion."

Rick looked at Gordon. "Did you say something about a fence, sir?"

"I did. Look over there." Gordon pointed to a crew with a mechanical
posthole digger that was just starting work, then gestured to sticks
with red flags that formed a huge box around the pad. "That's where the
fence will go. And there will be only one gate."

Rick took advantage of the brief exchange with Gordon to wink at the
scientist. Gordon picked up the cue quickly. "Can I ride back to the
base with you? I rode down with Dick, but he's not ready to leave yet."

"Glad to have you, sir," Rick replied.

On the way back to the base Rick told his story in detail, starting with
Scotty's and his own first suspicions about Mac and Pancho and ending
with their rescue by Deadrock Ogg.

John Gordon remained silent for long minutes after Rick had finished.
Finally he said, "You've certainly stirred up something, Rick, but I
don't know how it fits into the over-all pattern. You and Scotty meet me
in thirty minutes in my quarters and we'll see."

Rick dropped the scientist off at his office, then went to find Scotty.
His pal was just emerging from the big maintenance shed. "Anything new?"
Rick greeted him.

"Mac and Pancho took their truck out last night," Scotty reported. "The
timing was right. They could have been driving the second vehicle that
arrived while we were getting loose in the jail."

Rick looked at him curiously. "Funny. Why would they take a truck out? I
mean, what legitimate reason could they have?"

"They made one. Mac told the dispatcher they'd left an important piece
of gear at Careless Mesa."

So their hunch about Mac and Pancho had been right! But Rick still
couldn't figure out how they were involved.

"How did you find out?" he asked.

"Easy. I checked the board. The dispatcher was sitting right there, so I
just kind of wondered aloud what a tracking team would be doing off the
base at night. He's a talkative sort, anyway, so he just handed me the
dope."

Exactly twenty minutes later Rick and Scotty walked through the door
into the barracks in which John Gordon had his quarters. They hadn't
been inside before, although they had taken the precaution of locating
it in advance. It wasn't like their barracks. Instead, it was divided
into a series of individual rooms, occupied by the chief executives of
the bas