Oscar picked ten or twelve men, and they got into a lorry and went
uptown and down a vehicle shaft to Second Level. I followed in my
jeep, even after Oscar and his crowd let down and got out, and hovered
behind them as they advanced on foot to Hunters' Hall.
The Second Level Down was the vehicle storage, where the derricks and
other equipment had been kept. It was empty now except for a
workbench, a hand forge and some other things like that, a few drums
of lubricant, and several piles of sheet metal. Oscar and his men got
inside and I followed, going up to the ceiling. I was the one who saw
the man lying back of a pile of sheet metal, and called their
attention.
He wore boat-clothes and had black whiskers, and he had a knife and a
pistol on his belt. At first I thought he was dead. A couple of
Oscar's followers, dragging him out, said:
"He's been sleep-gassed."
Somebody else recognized him. He was the lone man who had been on
guard in the jeep. The jeep was nowhere in sight.
I began to be really worried. My lighter gadget could have been what
had gassed him. It probably was; there weren't many sleep-gas weapons
on Fenris. I had to get fills made up specially for mine. So it looked
to me as though somebody had gotten mine off Bish, and then used it
to knock out our guard. Taken if off his body, I guessed. That crowd
wasn't any more interested in taking prisoners alive than we were.
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