Gavin allowed consternation to register on his face, but thought, A good bluff—if I had been chief engineer of the Europa! The middle-aged man, he realized, was only parroting the misinformation he had given Trev, the Martian. Obviously, he had learned about Gavin from either Trev or that girl, Nadia Petrovna. Captain Cabot wouldn't be apt to double-cross himself and this had all the earmarks of treachery.
Gavin drank and asked, "Well?"
"You're an astro-engineer, Mr. Murdock. We're interested."
"Who's 'we'?"
The middle-aged man pulled out a handkerchief with which to pat his sallow cheeks. "I'm sorry, Mr. Murdock, but I'm not at liberty to reveal that."
Gavin scowled. "Who are you?"
"One alias is as good as another." The man smiled pleasantly. "X will do for the present. Suppose you call me Mr. X. I represent a group, Mr. Murdock, who are interested in the Nova's space drive."
"Well?" said Gavin dryly. The group whom Mr. X represented weren't the only ones interested in Nova's spacedrive. The T.I.S., for one, was particularly concerned about it. The Nova made the crossing between Jupiter and Venus with her contraband load of slaves in an impossibly short space of time. The crack patrol ships of the Empire had neither been able to keep the Nova in sight nor trap her. Gavin's early experience as an astro-engineer with Tri-World had been the really important reason that he had been assigned to the job.
Mr. X put the tips of his pudgy fingers together. "As third assistant-engineer of the Nova, Mr. Murdock, you will have an unrivaled opportunity to study her drive. We're willing to pay and pay handsomely for the secret of that drive."
"How much?"