"Sure did."
"Don't let him; Maculay will keep him down."
Hanson decided that this was the time to let the story out. "Redmond came here seeking Maculay. Maculay is on Venus having himself a vacation at my orders, and Redmond wanted him back."
"Wanted him back my foot! Redmond—if anything—wanted to be certain that Maculay was out of the way so that he could plunge into the secret files, using the emergency as reason. What are you doing about it?"
Hanson smiled to himself. "I've done it," he said. "I was just confirming some of my fears by calling you. I've just sent Miss Longacre to get him."
"Pray that she hurries," said Rober. "Redmond is the guy made from the same mold as the Sorcerer's Apprentice."
"You mean the kind of student we used to explain the process of making nitroglycerine to carefully because we knew they'd make it anyway, and blow hell out of themselves if they didn't violate the rules correctly?"
"More'n that," said Rober. "I said Sorcerer's Apprentice and I meant just that. Redmond is the kind of dope who would start manufacturing negative space and not be able to stop the process."
"Someone—or something—has done it."
"Yeah. But they—and Maculay alone on earth—knows what they're doing. And Maculay when I last saw him knew enough to leave it alone."