Wandl the Invader | Page 3

did." Snap added softly. "No one very close."
He and I carried the detector to the length of the hall. The indicator
went nearer normal. "It must be the other way," I whispered.
We went to the moonlit balcony. "Way down there on the pedestrian
arcade," I said.
"We'll soon fix that," Snap said.
Inside the room, we made connection with a newscaster's blaring voice.
Under cover of it we could talk. Snap gathered us close around him.
"Halsey has something important, and it's about this interstellar invader.
It all connects. His office paged me on a public mirror. I happened to
see it at Park-Circle 40. When I answered it, Halsey's man wanted me
to talk in code. I can't talk in code; I have enough to worry about with
the interplanetary helios. Then they sent me to an official booth, where
I got examined for positive legal identification, and then they put me on
the official split-wave length. After all of which precautions I was told
to be at Halsey's office tonight at midnight, and told a few other
things."
"What?" demanded Venza breathlessly.
"Only hints. Why take chances, by repeating them now?"

"You said he wants me, too?" I put in.
"Yes. You and Venza. We've got to get into his office secretly, by the
vacuum cylinders. We're to meet a man from his office at the Eighth
Postal switch-station."
"Venza?" Anita said sharply. "What in the universe can he want with
Venza? If she's going, I'm going too!"
Snap gazed at her and grinned. "That sounds like a logical deduction.
Naturally he must want you; that's why he said Venza."
"I'm going," Anita insisted.
We left half an hour before midnight. The girls were both in gray, with
long capes. We took the public monorail into the mid-Manhattan
section under the city roof of the business district, and into the Eighth
Postal switch-station where the sleek bronze cylinders came tumbling
out of the vacuum ports to be re-routed and dispatched again.
A man was on the lookout for us. "Daniel Dean and party?"
"Yes. We were ordered here."
The detective gazed at the girls and at me. "It was three, Dean."
"And now it's four," said Snap cheerfully. "The extra one is Miss Anita
Prince. Ever heard of her?"
He had indeed. "All right," he said. "If you and Haljan say so."
We were put into one of the oversized mail cylinders and routed
through the tubes like sacks of recorded letters; in ten minutes, with a
thump that knocked the breath out of all of us, we were in the
switch-rack of Halsey's outer office.
We clambered from the cylinder. Our guide led us down one of the
gloomy metal corridors. It echoed with our tread.

A door lifted.
"Daniel Dean and party."
The guard stood aside. "Come in."
The door slid down behind us. We advanced into the small blue-lit
apartment, steel-lined like a vault.

2
Colonel Halsey sat at his desk, with a few papers before him and a bank
of instrument controls at his elbow. He pushed his audiphone and
mirror-grid to one side.
"Sit down, please." He gave us each the benefit of a welcoming smile,
and his gaze finished upon Anita.
"I came because you sent for Venza," Anita said quickly. "Please,
Colonel Halsey, let me stay. I thought, whatever you want her for, you
might need me, too."
"Quite so, Miss Prince. Perhaps I shall." It seemed that in his mind
were many of the thoughts thronging my own, for he added: "Haljan, I
recall I sent for you like this once before. I hope this may be a more
auspicious occasion."
"So do I, sir."
Snap said, "We've been afraid hardly to do more than a whisper. But
you're insulated here, and we're mighty curious."
Halsey nodded. "I can talk freely to you, and yet I cannot." His gaze
went to Venza. "It is you in whom I am most interested."
"Me? You flatter me, Colonel Halsey." She sat gracefully reclining in
the metal chair before his desk, seeming small as a child between its

big, broad arms. Her long gray skirt had parted to display her shapely,
gray-satined legs. She had thrown off the hood of her cloak. Her thick
black hair was coiled in a knot low at the back of her neck; her carmine
lips bore an alluring smile. It was all instinctive. To this girl from
Venus it came as naturally as she breathed.
Halsey's gray eyes twinkled. "Do not look at me quite like that, Miss
Venza, or I shall forget what I have to say. You would get the better of
me; I'm glad you're not a criminal."
"So am I," she declared. "What can I do for you, Colonel Halsey?"
His smile faded