Luna Escapade Page 4

them, as he stalked toward the exit.

  "Hey," Fisher called after him, "that redhead, Eileen, told me to askif you're taking her out tonight."

  Dudley paused. He ran a hand over his face. "Yeah, I guess so," he said.

  He went out, thinking, _I should have taken her. The hell withregulations and Jack's theories about her being born too soon to beuseful on Mars. She might have straightened out._

  He headed for the tunnel that led to the loading domes.

  Ericsson was a large crater, over a hundred miles across and with abeautifully intact ringwall, so it took him some hours, even with thetractor he borrowed, to go as far as the edge of the crater. Jack Fisherwas waiting for him in the surface dome when he returned hours later.

  "Welcome back," he said, chewing nervously on his cigar. "I waswondering if we'd have to go looking for you." He looked relieved.

  "How did she look?" he asked casually, as Dudley climbed out of hisspace suit in the locker room.

  Dudley peeled off the one-piece suit he had worn under the heating pads.He sniffed.

  "Chee-rist, I need a shower after that.... She looked all right. Prettycute, in a way. Like she was happy here on Luna."

  He picked up towel and soap. "So I fixed it so she could stay," headded.

  "What do you mean?"

  He looked at Fisher. "Are you asking as a friend or as a cop?"

  "What difference does it make?" asked Fisher.

  "Well, I don't think you could have tracked me with your radar past theringwall, so maybe I just went for a ride and a little stroll, huh? Youdidn't see me bring back a shovel, did you?"

  "No," said Fisher, "I didn't see you bring it back. But some people aregoing to get excited about this, Pete. Where did you bury her?"

  "Blood-suckers!" said Dudley. "Let them get excited! Luna is full ofmysteries."

  "All right," said Fisher. "For my own curiosity, then, I'm asking as afriend."

  "I found a good place," said Dudley. "I kind of forget where, in themiddle of all those cliffs and rills, but it had a nice view of thestars. They'll never find her to take her back! I think I owed her thatmuch."

  "Ummm," grunted Fisher.

  As Dudley entered the shower, the other began to unwrap a new cigar, anot-displeased expression settling over his square, pudgy face.

  Under the slow-falling streams of warm water, Dudley gradually began torelax. He felt the stiffness ease out of his jaw muscles. He turned offthe bubbling water before he could begin imagining he was hearing ascared voice pleading again for passage to Mars....