It contained a solid wad of bills. Rick touched the top one, still a little unbelieving. The figure on it was 1000!
He turned the box over and tapped it. The bills dropped out. He didn't doubt there were two hundred of them.
Two hundred thousand dollars!
Rick looked at the expressions on the faces around him. Scotty was standing with openmouthed excitement. Youssef was leaning forward, feasting on the wealth with greedy eyes. Moustafa was slumped in resignation. And Ismail ben Adhem had the look of the cat that swallowed the cream.
"Now," Rick said triumphantly, "now we know why the cat was important!"
CHAPTER XX
The Signal Vanishes
Rick studied the Sanborn tracing. He could see where the pulsed signals gradually disappeared into a much stronger, steady 21-centimeter signal.
"We lost it at 4:02 yesterday," Winston said. "It hasn't reappeared. Apparently the signal source moved into, or behind, a globular cluster."