Trigger nodded. "Just leave the handbag with me."
"All right." He stood up. "I've got a hot lunch prepared for you. I'll bring the bag along. Then you can tell me what happened after they grabbed you."
"How did you find out I was gone?" Trigger asked.
"Your fac," he said. "The girl was darn good actually. I talked to you—her—on office transmitter once and didn't spot a sour note. Mostly she just kept out of everybody's way. Very slick at it! We would have got her fairly fast because we were preparing for take-off to Luscious by then. But she spilled it herself."
"How?"
"I located her finally again, on transmitter screen. There was no one on her side to impress. She took a sniff of porgee."
Trigger laughed delightedly. "Good old porgee pouch! It beat them twice. But how did you know where I was?"
"No problem there. We knew Lyad had strings on Pluly. Quillan knew about that sealed level on Pluly's yacht and got Pluly to invite him over to admire the harem right after the Dawn City arrived. While he was admiring, he was also recording floor patterns for a subtub jump. That gimmick's pretty much of a spilled secret now, but on a swap for you and Lyad it was worth it. We came aboard five minutes after we'd nabbed your fac."
"The Ermetyne figured you'd go chasing after the Aurora," Trigger said.
"Well," the Commissioner said tolerantly, "the Ermetyne's pretty young. The Aurora was a bit obvious."