* * * * *
I
Our ship, the space-flyer, _Planetara_, whose home port was Greater
New York, carried mail and passenger traffic to and from both Venus
and Mars. Of astronomical necessity, our flights were irregular. The
spring of 2070, with both planets close to the Earth, we were making
two complete round trips. We had just arrived in Greater New York, one
May evening, from Grebhar, Venus Free State. With only five hours in
port here, we were departing the same night at the zero hour for
Ferrok-Shahn, capital of the Martian Union.
We were no sooner at the landing stage than I found a code flash
summoning Dan Dean and me to Divisional Detective Headquarters. Dan
"Snap" Dean was one of my closest friends. He was electron-radio
operator of the _Planetara_. A small, wiry, red-headed chap, with a
quick, ready laugh and the kind of wit that made everyone like him.
The summons to Detective-Colonel Halsey's office surprised us. Dean
eyed me.
"You haven't been opening any treasure vaults, have you, Gregg?"
"He wants you, also," I retorted.
He laughed. "Well, he can roar at me like a traffic switch-man and my
private life will remain my own."
We could not think why we should be wanted. It was the darkness of
mid-evening when we left the _Planetara_ for Halsey's office. It was
not a long trip. We went on the upper monorail, descending into the
subterranean city at Park Circle 30.
We had never been to Halsey's office before. Now we found it to be a
gloomy, vaultlike place in one of the deepest corridors. The door
lifted.
"Gregg Haljan and Daniel Dean."