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a
collapsed-crystal core no more than a mile in diameter. There’s your odds.”
    “And you believe you’ve found a fragment of this core?”
    “Damn right we have. Couple of million tons if it’s an
ounce—and at three credits a ton delivered at Port Syrtis, we’re set for life.
About time, too. Twenty years I’ve been in the Belt. Got two kids I haven’t
seen for five years. Things are going to be different now.”
    “Hey, Sam; tone it down. You don’t have to broadcast to every
claim jumper in the Belt—”
    “Our claim’s on file at the consulate,” Sam said. “As soon as
we get the grant—”
    “When’s that gonna be? We been waitin’ a week now.”
    “I’ve never seen any collapsed-crystal metal,” Retief said.
“I’d like to take a look at it.”
    “Sure; come on, I’ll run you over. It’s about an hour’s run.
We’ll take our skiff. You want to go along, Willy?”
    “I got a bottle to go,” Willy said. “See you in the morning.”
    The
two men descended in the lift to the boat bay, suited up, and strapped into the
cramped boat. A bored attendant cycled the launch doors, levered the release
that propelled the skiff out and clear of the Jolly Barge Hotel. Retief caught
a glimpse of a tower of lights spinning majestically against the black of space
as the drive hurled the tiny boat away.
     
    Retief’s feet sank ankle deep into the powdery surface that
glinted like snow in the glare of the distant sun.
    “It’s
funny stuff,” Sam’s voice sounded in his ear. “Under a gee of gravity, you’d
sink out of sight. The stuff cuts diamond like butter—but temperature changes
break it down into a powder. A lot of it’s used just like this, as an
industrial abrasive. Easy to load, too. Just drop a suction line and start
pumping.”
    “And this whole rock is made of the same material?”
    “Sure is. We ran plenty of test bores, and a full schedule of
soundings. I’ve got the reports back aboard Gertie —that’s our lighter.”
    “And you’ve already loaded a cargo here?”
    “Yep.
We’re running out of capital fast. I need to get that cargo to port in a
hurry—before the outfit goes into involuntary bankruptcy. With this strike,
that’d be a crime. By the time the legal fees were paid off, we’d be broke
again.”
    “What do you know about General Minerals, Sam?”
    “You thinking of hiring on with them? Better read the fine
print in your contract before you sign. Sneakiest bunch this side of a
burglar’s convention.”
    “They own a chunk of rock known as 2645-P. Do you suppose we
could find it?”
    “Oh, you’re buying in, hey? Sure, we can find it. You damn
sure want to look it over good if General Minerals is selling.”
    Back aboard the skiff, Mancziewicz flipped the pages of the
chart book, consulted a table. “Yep, she’s not too far off. Let’s go see what
GM’s trying to unload . . . 
     
    The skiff hovered two miles from the giant boulder known as
2645-P. Retief and Mancziewicz looked it over at high magnification. “It don’t
look like much, Retief,” Sam said. “Let’s go down and take a closer look.”
    The boat dropped rapidly toward the scarred surface of the
tiny world, a floating mountain, glaring black and white in the spotlight of
the sun. Sam frowned at his instrument panel.
    “That’s funny; my ion-counter is revving up. Looks like a
drive trail, not more than an hour or two old. Somebody’s been
here . . .”
    The boat grounded. Retief and Sam got out. The stony surface
was littered with rock fragments varying in size from pebbles to great slabs
twenty feet long, tumbled in a loose bed of dust and sand. Retief pushed off
gently, drifted up to a vantage point atop an upended wedge of rock. Sam joined
him.
    “This is all igneous stuff,” he said. “Not likely we’ll find
much here that would pay the freight to Syrtis—unless maybe you lucked onto
some Bodean artifacts. They bring plenty.”
    He flipped a binocular in place as he