She was startled. "No, I didn't know that. I heard there'd been some unsuccessful attempts to steal distributed plasmoids."
"These six attempts," Rak said primly, "were completely successful. One must assume that the victimized laboratories also had been regarded as raidproof."
Trigger admitted it was a reasonable assumption.
"There is another matter," Rak went on. "When we arrived here, we understood Doctor Gess Fayle was to bring Plasmoid Unit 112-113 to this project. It seems possible that Doctor Fayle's failure to appear indicates that League Headquarters does not consider the project a sufficiently safe place for 112-113."
"Why don't you ask Headquarters?" Trigger suggested.
They stirred nervously.
"That would be a violation of the Principle of the Chain of Command, Miss Farn!" Rak explained.
"Oh," she said. The Juniors were overdisciplined, all right. "Is that 112-113 such a particularly important item?"
"If Doctor Fayle is in personal charge of it," Rak said carefully, "I would say yes."
Recalling her meetings with Doctor Gess Fayle in the Manon System, Trigger silently agreed. He was one of the U-League's big shots, a political scientist who had got himself appointed as Mantelish's chief assistant when that eminent biologist was first sent to Manon to take over League operations there. Trigger had disliked Fayle on sight, and hadn't changed her mind on closer acquaintance.