Tick-tick, said the amplifier.

Meers nodded. "He says yes. Whether he really knows what we want, or not, I can't say."

Horitz spoke into his transceiver: "Central. Will you please page Mr. Abbot, Miss Acheson, Mr. and Mrs. Adler and Mr. Aguirez? Ask them to come to stateroom B39."

One by one, the passengers whose names began with A were let into the stateroom and presented to Oscar. Oscar said nothing. The passengers, bewildered or indignant, were ushered out and a new batch came in.

They went through the B's, the C's, the D's, the E's, the F's, the G's, the H's, the I's.... The whole list numbered about 150, some of whom had been shuttled aboard at the Jovian System, others at Mars. Finally Horitz called a halt for lunch. Dr. Meers, pleading indisposition, had gone to lie down in his stateroom. The three Security men were alone with Dr. Ilyanov—and Oscar.

Walsh, munching a corned-beef sandwich, stared at the black lump balefully. "Honestly, Dr. Ilyanov," he said, "doesn't he ever give you the creeps?"

She smiled slightly. "Honestly—yes. I dream about him sometimes."

Sommers glanced at her curiously. "What do you dream?" he asked.

"Well—" she hesitated. "It's really silly, but—Last night, you see, I was thinking of something poor Professor Thomasson had said, half-jokingly, when we were discussing Oscar. He said that Oscar might not be a complete organism." She gestured toward the black thing on the table. "You know—his flat underside, that he walks with, and those curious flat areas along his sides? He can grip with those. If you put your hand there, he grips it."

Horitz nodded. "Thomasson showed me that trick." He reached over and put his hand on Oscar's black, glutinous side. "Shake hands, Oscar."

The hand sank visibly in the black flesh. When Horitz pulled it away, there was a small sucking noise.

"Ugh," said Walsh disgustedly.

"Well," continued Dr. Ilyanov, "you know that Oscar's space shell was wrecked. Professor Thomasson suggested that the accident that wrecked it might have wrecked Oscar too—that really, when he is all there, he is three or four Oscars linked together—"

She laughed embarrassedly. "Anyhow, when I slept last night, I had this 

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