"Trouble, Paul?" I asked.
He nodded, saying, "The tunnel car is working."
"It should. It's been tested enough."
"Holly Carter drew the short straw."
"Er—" I started and then stopped short as the implication became clear. "She's—she's—not—?"
"Holly made it to Venus all right," he said. "Trouble is we can't get her back."
"Can't get her back?"
He nodded again. "You know, we've never really known very much about the atmosphere of Venus."
"Yes."
"Well, from what little came through just before Holly blacked out, it seems that there must be one of the cyanogens in the atmosphere in a concentration high enough to effect nervous paralysis."