In their ship just beyond the orbit of Mars the two aliens sat looking at each other.

No, Riuku said. I haven’t had any luck. And I can tell you right now that I’m not going to have any, and no one else is going to have any either. The Earthmen are too well shielded.

You contacted the factory? Nagor asked.

Easily. It’s the right one. The parking lot attendant knows there’s a new weapon being produced in there. The waitress at the Jumbo Burger Grill across the street knows it. Everybody I reached knows it. But not one knows anything about what it is.

Nagor looked out through the ports of the spaceship, which didn’t in the least resemble an Earth spaceship, any more than what Nagor considered sight resembled the corresponding Earth sense perception. He frowned.

What about the research scientists? We know who some of them are. The supervisors? The technicians?

No, Riuku said flatly. They’re shielded. Perfectly I can’t make contact with a single mind down there that has the faintest inkling of what’s going on. We never should have let them develop the shield.

Have you tried contacting everyone? What about the workers?

Shielded. All ten thousand of them. Of course I haven’t checked all of them yet, but–

Do it, Nagor said grimly. We’ve got to find out what that weapon is. Or else get out of this solar system.

Riuku sighed. I’ll try, he said.