* * * * *
Goil called for Orrin and me. We entered his temporary quarters.
"Sit down," he said. He suggestively waved smoke away from his face,
and Orrin stubbed out his cigar.
"Mr. Orrin," Goil started, "you may have one of the top asteroid
mining stations, but in spite of your fine production record, there
seem to be some discrepancies we don't understand.
"For example, certain supply items are being used in greater
quantities than the size of your operations require. This seems to
have been going on for some time according to your records--and what
your records do not show. Your expendable supplies items accounting
seems to be lax, if not outright careless. Furthermore, there seems to
be some non-expendable items that can't be accounted for, a couple of
major items among them. This doesn't make much sense out here in the
middle of nowhere, unless careless loss is the answer. Such losses
could hardly be attributed to theft. Needless to say, theft out here
would serve a thief absolutely no purpose."
"What major items are not accounted for?" asked Orrin, with a puzzled
look on his face, as if he didn't believe Goil.
"The only thing I can recall offhand," said Goil, "is a tug. And
that's pretty major."
I gave an inner sigh of relief. "I can account for that," I said. "And
Mr. Orrin can back me up. The tug lost steering control the other day
and crashed into one of the larger asteroids. It was demolished. The
accident report and destruction data are a little slow getting into
the records section."
"That's right," said Orrin. "Willy Maloon made the inspection and I
certified it. Total loss. The tug was going mighty fast when it hit."
"Where are the remains?" asked Goil.
"Whenever anything big enough is destroyed," I answered, "it is placed
with the next batch of asteroids to be vaporized. The metals are
recovered that way, so the thing is not quite a total loss. That tug
was vaporized during the operation we watched yesterday."
"I see," said Goil. "And this man, ah--Maloon--can he be trusted on
such an inspection?"
"One of the best," I answered.
"Anyway," continued Goil, "there seems to be something peculiar going
on here. I've instructed my teams to go into this as deeply as they
can."
Orrin nodded. I nodded too, but I felt a bit apprehensive. This was an
awkward time for Goil to have arrived. And it might prove even more
awkward for him to take sudden interest in Willy.
* * * * *
The next day, Goil summoned Orrin and me to his quarters once again.
It was about an hour after the end of a normal work-day. Orrin and I
were both available, and we met at the door of Goil's quarters at
about the same time.
Goil had thunderclouds ready to burst hanging around his head. I could
see that as soon as we entered the room. Orrin's spirits visibly
dropped. So did mine.
The black cloud over Goil burst. For five minutes without letup he
stormed. When Orrin and I recovered a little from the deluge, Goil was
saying:
"... complete indications of careless management. And management, Mr.
Orrin, starts at the top." He looked hard at Orrin. Then he turned to
me adding, "And goes on down. _How_ can you account for a missing
sub-space energizer, especially one as large and powerful as the ones
we use? And one gravity generator?"
"Huh?" said Orrin, seeming to come out of a daze. "What's missing?"
Goil slowed down a bit. "One gravity generator and one sub-space
energizer, Mr. Orrin. One each of these items is used for each
vaporizing process. And you have one too few vaporizing projects on
record. And one each gravity generator and energizer unsigned for,
completely unaccounted for--so far."
"What do you mean, 'so far'?" I asked. "Have you any idea how we can
account for these two items?"
"I have indeed," said Goil.
"I don't understand," said Orrin in a helpless tone. "How could anyone
lose or misplace anything as big as those? It doesn't make sense."