Murdock leaned forward and his eyes closed.
The windows slowly darkened into complete opacity. The seat beltcrept higher and drew him back away from the wheel. Then the seatgradually leaned backwards until he was reclining on a level plane.The heater came on as the night approached, later.
The seat shook him awake, a little before five in the morning.
"Wake up, Sam! Wake up!"
"What is it?" he mumbled.
"I picked up a broadcast twenty minutes ago. There was a recentcar-raid out this way. I changed immediately, and we are almostthere."
"Why didn't you get me up right away?"
"You needed the sleep, and there was nothing you could do but gettense and nervous."
"Okay, you're probably right. Tell me about the raid."
"Six vehicles, proceeding westward, were apparently ambushed by anundetermined number of wild cars sometimes last night. The PatrolCopter was reporting it from above the scene and I listened in. Allthe vehicles were stripped and drained and their brains were smashed,and their passengers were all apparently killed too. There were nosigns of movement."
"How far is it now?"
"Another two or three minutes."
The windshields came clear once more, and Murdock stared as farahead through the night as the powerful lamps could cut.
"I see something," he said, after a few moments.
"This is the place," said Jenny, and she began to slow down.
They drew up beside the ravaged cars. His seat belt unstrappedand the door sprang open on his side.
"Circle around, Jenny," he said, "and look for heat tracks. Iwon't be long."
The door slammed and Jenny moved away from him. He snapped on hispocket torch and moved toward the wrecked vehicles.
The Plain was like a sand-strewn dance floorчhard andgrittyчbeneath his feet. There were many skid-marks, and a