He was just clicking the locks on his brief case, when a gray-haired woman with a pencil thrust into her curls popped her head in the doorway.

"Mr. Blacker?" she smiled. "I\'m Dora, Mr. Wright\'s secretary. Mr. Wright wants to know if you\'ll stop in to see him."

"Wright?" Tom said blankly.

"The treasurer. His office is just down the hall. He\'s very anxious to see you, something about the expense sheets you turned in last week."

Tom frowned. "Why don\'t I see him in the morning?"

"It won\'t take but a minute."

"All right."

He sighed, picked up the brief case, and followed Dora outside. She showed him the door of an office some thirty paces from his own, and he entered without knocking.

A frail man, with a bald head and a squiggly moustache, stood up behind his desk.

"Oh, dear," he said nervously. "I\'m terribly sorry to do this, Mr. Blacker. But I have my instructions."

"Do what?"

"Oh, dear," Mr. Wright said again.

He took the gun that was lying in his out-box, and fired it. His trembling hand sent the bullet spanging into the wooden frame of the door. Tom dropped to the thick carpet, and then scrambled to the tall credenza set against the right wall of the office. He shoved it aside with his left hand and ducked behind it. The treasurer came out from behind his desk, still muttering to himself.

"Please," he said in anguish, "this is very painful for me!"

He fired the gun again, and the bullet tore a white hole in the wall above Tom\'s head.

"Don\'t be so difficult," the little man pleaded. "Sooner or later—"

But Tom insisted upon being difficult. His fingers closed around a loose volume of New York State Tax Laws, and jiggled it in readiness. When the little treasurer came closer, he sprung from hiding and hurled the book. It slammed against Wright\'s side, and surprised him enough to send the arm holding the weapon into the air. That was the advantage Tom wanted. He leaped in a low-flying tackle, and brought Wright to the carpet. Then he was on top of the little man, grappling for the gun. Tom fought hard to get the gun.

He got it, but not before it was fired again.

Tom looked down at the widening stain that was marring the smooth texture of the carpet and was horrified. He bent down over the frail figure, lifting the bald head in his hands.

"Mr. Wright!"

The treasurer groaned. "Sorry," he said. "Instructions, Mr. Blacker ..."

"From whom? Andrusco?"

"Yes ... Your message reported from switchboard ... had orders ..."

"Is it true?" Tom said frantically. "About Antamunda? Is the story true?"

The little man nodded. Then he lifted one hand feebly towards the desk. "Gary," he said. "Tell Gary ..."

Tom looked in the direction of the gesture, and saw the back of a framed photograph.

When he turned to the treasurer again, the thin lips had stopped moving.

He lowered the body to the floor and went to the desk. The photo was that of a young man with stiff-bristled blond hair and a rugged smile. The inscription read:

"To Pop, with deep affection, Gary."

Tom shook his head, wonderingly. Were these creatures so very different?

When Tom stepped out on Fifth-Madison some ten minutes later, it was just in time to watch a police vehicle draw up to the entrance of 320. Sensing danger, he stepped into the shade of the Tuscany Bar awning, and watched the uniformed men pound their way down the marbled lobby floor towards the elevators. He thought fast, and decided that the arrival of the police was connected with the shooting in Wright\'s office.

The question was—who were they after?

He walked into the Tuscany, and headed for the bank of visiphone booths. He dialed the police commissioner, but ducked out of the path of the visiphone eye.

Stinson growled at the blank screen. "Who is it?"

"Never mind," Tom said, muffling his voice. "But if you want the killers of Walt Spencer and his wife, pick up John Andrusco and a gal named Livia Cord."

"Okay, Blacker," Stinson thundered. "I knew you\'d be calling in."

Tom swore, and showed himself. "Listen, I\'m telling you the truth. They told me the whole story. Then they tried to have me killed."

"Is that so? And I suppose the assassin was a guy named Wright?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, wise guy. We\'re on to you. You\'ve been pocketing some of that Homelovers dough, and the treasurer found you out. Isn\'t that the story?"

"No! Wright\'s one of them."

"Sure, pal. Whatever you say. Only stay right where you are so you can do your explaining proper."

Tom tightened his lips. "Uh-huh. I don\'t like the sound of things. I\'ll see you later, Mr. Stinson."

"Blacker!"

Tom switched off.

By the time he was settled behind the red neck of a cab-driver, Tom was wiping a dripping film of sweat from his forehead. He couldn\'t return to his apartment; there was bound to be a stake-out. He couldn\'t go to Livia\'s; that would be walking right into danger. And he couldn\'t go to Stinson, without risking a murder charge.

He leaned forward.

"Driver—make that the LaGuardia Heliport."

However efficient Stinson\'s operations might have been, their tentacles hadn\'t reached the \'copter-rental station at the heliport. Tom signed out a speedy vessel under an assumed name, and taxied it down the runway. Then he pointed the nose west, and radioed ahead to his destination at Washington, D. C.

Colonel Grady Mordigan had the thoughtful air of a scholar and the body of a college wrestler. When Tom Blacker\'s name was announced to him, his mouth turned down grimly. He was commanding officer of the Space Flight Commission of the UN Air Force, and he had good reason to frown at the sound of the PR man\'s name.

But he invited him into his office.

"So you\'re Tom Blacker," he said, pinching his jaw. "I\'ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Blacker."

"I\'m sure," Tom said. "Only I want to tell you this, Colonel. I\'ve broken my connection with Homelovers. I\'m on your side now."

"Side? There are no sides in this issue, Mr. Blacker. As far as I\'m concerned, Homelovers is nothing but a flea on the lip of a lion. A damned annoying flea, maybe—but nothing more than that. Now what do you want?"

"I have to talk to you about something. Something I just found out. Will you listen to me?"

The colonel leaned back, looking at his watch.

"Five minutes," he snapped.

Tom talked for fifteen. Mordigan didn\'t call a halt until he was finished, listening without a change of expression. When Tom ran out of words, he merely tapped his fingers on the desk.

"And that\'s your whole story?" he said gently.

"Yes, sir. I know it\'s a wild one. That\'s one of the things they\'re counting on. It\'s just wild enough to get me put into a laughing academy, where I can\'t do them any mischief. But I had to take that chance, Colonel."

"I see. And this—man you killed. What\'s happening about that?"

"I don\'t know," Tom said. "The way I figure it, Andrusco and the girl have told the police that I was embezzling money from the firm—that I killed the treasurer for my own protection. But it\'s not true! He\'s one of them—one of those creatures—"

"But you have no real proof?"

Tom\'s back stiffened. "No," he said grimly. "If I had proof, I\'d have gone to the police. But I came here instead. Now you can tell me if I did the right thing."

Mordigan grimaced. "I don\'t know, damn it! I don\'t have any love for the Homelovers. To me, they\'ve always been a bunch of greedy businessmen, intent on salvaging their franchises at any expense. But it\'s not easy to think of them as a bunch of—" His mouth twisted. "Loathsome aliens ..."

"Maybe not so loathsome," Tom said miserably. "I just don\'t know. Maybe their cause is as just to them as ours is to us. But they\'re determined to reach Mars before we do—before you do! And they\'ll do anything to make sure—"

The colonel stood up. "But I\'m afraid that question is academic, Mr. Blacker. Because if our calculations are right, an Earth vessel will be on the planet Mars within the next thirty-six hours."

"What?"

"No announcement has been made. But a Mars-bound ship was launched almost a month ago, containing se............