Joe shouted: “What’s that?”
The plane banked at a steep angle and ran back. It banked again. The pilot stared carefully. He reached forward and pushed a button. There was a tiny impact underfoot. Another steep banking turn, and Joe saw a puff of smoke in the air.
The pilot shouted: “It’s a man. He looks dead.”
He swung directly over the small prone object and there was a second puff of smoke.
“They’ve got range finders on us from the Shed,” he called across the two-foot space separating him from Joe. “This marks the spot. Now we’ll see if there’s anything to the hot part of that tip.”
He reached over behind his seat and brought out a stubby pole like a fishpole with a very large reel. There was also a headset, and something very much like a large aluminum fish on the end of the line.
“You know Geiger counters?” called the pilot. “Stick on these headphones and listen!”
Joe slipped on the headset. The pilot threw a switch and Joe heard clickings. They had no pattern and no fixed frequency. They were clickings at strictly random intervals, but there was an average frequency, at that.
“Let the counter out the window,” called the pilot, “and listen. Tell me if the noise goes up.”