Duncan guessed that Calindy was telling the simple truth, if indeed the truth was simple. Some, but not all, of his pique evaporated.

“Well, I’m upset and disappointed. I should have thought you’d have trusted me. Anyway, there’s no further need for-subterfuge-now that I know He’s here. I’ve an urgent message for him-where can I locate him?”

There was another long pause; then Calindy answered: “I don’t know where he is. He left suddenly, and never told me where he was going. He might even have returned to Titan.”

“Without saying good-bye? Hardly! And there are no ships to Titan for a month.”

“Then I suppose he’s still on Earth, or no farther away than the Moon. I simply don’t know.”

Oddly enough, Duncan believed her. Her voice still had the ring of truth, though he did not delude himself about her power to deceive him if she wished.

“In that case, IT have to trace him in some other way. It’s imperative that we meet.”

“I wouldn’t advise that, Duncan.”

“Why ever not?”

“He’s-very angry with you.”

“I can’t imaoi e the reason,” retorted Duncan, in swiftly imagining several. Calindy’s voice sounded such a genuine note of alarm that he felt himself responding strongly to her concern.

However, it seemed that this avenue was closed, at least for the time being. He knew better than to argue with Calindy. With a mixture of

emotions, he expressed hopes for her continued improvement, and broke the circuit. He hoped that she would interpret his attitude as one of both sorrow and anger, and feel correspondingly contrite.

A minute later, he was looking-with some relief -at a screen that was no longer empty, and could reveal the other party’s reactions.

“Did you know,” he asked Ambassador Farrell, “that Karl Helmer is on

Earth?”

His Excellency blinked.

“I certainly did not. He never contacted me-I’ll see if the Chancery knows anything.”

He punched a few buttons, and it was obvious that nothing happened. The ambassador glanced at Duncan with annoyance.

“I wish we could afford a new intercom system,” he said accusingly. “They cost a very small fraction of the Titan Gross National Product.”

Duncan thought it wise to let this pass, and luckily on the second attempt the ambassador got through. He muttered a few inaudible questions, waited for a minute, then looked at Duncan and shook his head.

“No trace of him-not even a Terran forwarding address for any messages from home. Most odd.”

“Wouldn’t you say-unprecedented?”

“Um-yes. I’ve never heard of anyone failing to contact the Embassy as soon as they reach Earth. Usually, of course, we know that they’re coming, weeks in advance. There’s no law compelling them to get in touch-but it’s a matter of courtesy. Not to mention convenience.”

“That’s what I thought. Well, if you hear anything of him, would you let me know?”

The ambassador stared back at him in silence for a moment, with the most enigmatic of smiles on his face. Then he said: “What do Malcolm and Colin think he’s doing? Plotting a coup dYtat with smuggled guns?”

After a moment’s shock, Duncan laughed at the joke.

“Not even Karl is that crazy. Frankly, I’m completely baffled by the whole thing-but I’m determined to locate him. Though there may be half

a billion people on Earth, he’s not exactly inconspicuous. Please keep in touch. Goodbye for the present.”

Two down, thought Duncan, and one to go. It was back to Ivor Mandel’stahm, in his self-appointed, and by no means unsuccessful, role of private eye.

But Ivor’s Comsole answered: “Please do not disturb. Kindly record any message.”

Duncan was annoyed; he was bursting to pass on his news, but was certainly not going to leave it stored in a Comsole. He would have to wait until

Mandel’stahm called back.

That took two hours, and meanwhile it was not easy to concentrate on other work. When the dealer finally returned the call, he apologized profusely.

“I was trying a long shot,” he explained. “I wondered if he’d bought anything in New York on a credit card. There aren’t all that number of aitches, and the Central Billing computer zipped through them in an hour. . Alas-he must be using cash. Not a federal crime, of course. But a nuisance to us honest investigators.”

Duncan laughed.

“It was a good idea. I’ve done slightly better-at least I’ve eliminated some possibilities.”

He gave Mandel’stalun a brief resume of his discussions with Calindy and

Ambassador Farrell, then added: “Where do we go from here?”

“I’m not sure. But don’t worry-I’ll think of something.”

Duncan believed him. He now had an almost unreasoning confidence in the dealer’s ingenuity, not to mention his influence and his knowledge of the ways of Earth. If anyone could locate Karl-short of going to the police, or inserting a personal appeal in the World Times-it would be Mandel’stalun.

In fact, it took him only thirty-six hours.

THE EYE OF ALLAH

I I I’ve found him,” said Mandel’stahm. He looked tired but victorious.

“I knew you would,” Duncan replied with unfeigned admiration. “Where is he?”

“Don’t be so impatient-let me have my reasonably innocent fun. I’ve earned it.”

“Well, whose concierge did you bamboozle this time?”

Mandel’stahm looked slightly pained.

“Nobody’s. I first tried to find all I could about your friend Helmer, by the brilliant device of looking him up in the Interplanetary Who’s Who. I assumed he’d be there, and he was-a hundred-line print-out. I looked you up at the same time, by the, way…. You rate one hundred fifty lines, if that’s any satisfaction.”

“I know,” said Duncan, with what patience he could muster. “Go on.”

“I wondered if it would list any Terran contacts or interests, and again I was in luck. He belongs to the Institution of Electronic Engineers, the

Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute of Physics, and the Institute of

Astronautics-as well as several Titanian professional organizations, of course. And I see he’s written half a dozen scientific papers, and been joint author in others: the Ionosphere of Saturn, origins of ultra-long-wave electromagnetic radiation, and other thrilling esoterica nothing of any use to us, though.

“The Royal astronomers are in London, of course -but the engineers and astronauts and physicists are all in New York, and I wondered if he’d contacted them. So I called on another of my useful friends-a

scientist this time, and a most distinguished one, who 236 could open any doors without questions being asked. I hoped that a visiting

Titanian colleague was a rare enough phenomenon to attract attention… and indeed he was.”

Mandel’stahm gave another of his pregnant pauses, so that Duncan could simmer for a while, then went on This is what puzzles me. Apart from ignoring the Embassy, and telling

Miss Ellerman to keep quiet, he’s done absolutely nothing to cover his tracks. I don’t think that anyone with much to hide would behave in that way…. “It was really very simple. The Electronics people were happy to help. They told us he’d left North Atlan and could be contacted care of the Assistant

Chief Engineer, Division C, World Communications Headquarters, Tehran. Not the sort of address you’d associate with gem smuggling and interplanetary skulduggery…. “So over to Tehran-just in time to miss him, but no matter. He’ll be at the same location now for a couple of days, and in view of his background, at last we’ve got something that makes a little sense.

“World Com’s Division C are the boys who keep Project CYCLOps running. And even I have heard of that.”

It had been conceived in the first bright dawn of the Space Age; the largest, most expensive, and potentially most promising scientific instrument ever devised. Though it could serve many purposes, one was paramount-the search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.