"Don't touch him," Grimes ordered. "We'll look at him later if possible. And stand around for a while before you go any further. Is there anything peculiar at all? Any small animal life? Any strange smells?"
"Just this stinking atmosphere. I don't see a thing, sir. There's no doubt that Lerner's dead."
Grimes watched the engineer stroll around aimlessly in front of the UN building for a full twenty minutes and then finally gave him permission to enter.
"I'm propping the door open," Manson said. "There's nothing in the lobby. Looks like there were tables and chairs here at one time, but they've been taken out."
The voice prattled on and Grimes tried to relax while listening, but he found himself tensing with the beginning of each sentence.
"I feel a little woozy," Manson said all of a sudden. "It's just the light gravity, I know. I've been on Mars—it's the same sensation."
"Nevertheless, get out of that building immediately," Grimes shouted.
The engineer's figure appeared at once on the TV screen and Grimes breathed a sigh of relief. Just the same he reassured himself with a pair of binoculars that Manson was all right, as though he didn't trust the electronic image.
"How do you feel?" he asked anxiously.
"Not so good. I never really got used to walking on Mars, and I was there a dozen times or more. I never stopped taking the Uneasy pills, though I got so I used to bite 'em in half and take ... just ... a ... part...."