Reich’s breath came and went in snarls. He overturned files in the path of the burly gentlemen, put his head down and bulled straight through them. He raced through the office to the outside corridor and the Pneumatique. The door opened; he punched Science-city 57. He stepped into the air-shuttle and was shot over to Science where he stepped out.

He was on the laboratory floor. It was in darkness. Probably the staff imagined he had dropped to the street level. He would have time. Still breathing heavily, he trotted to the lab library, snapped on the lights and went to the reference alcove. A sheet of frosted crystal, cocked like a draft-board, was set before a desk chair. There was a complicated panel of control buttons alongside it.

Reich seated himself and punched READY. The sheet lit up and a canned voice spoke from an overhead speaker.

“Topic?”

Reich punched SCIENCE.

“Section?”

Reich punched ASTRONOMY.

“Question?”

“The universe.”

Click-pause-click. “The term universe in its complete physical sense applies to all matter in existence.”

“What matter is in existence?”

Click-pause-click. “Matter is gathered into aggregates ranging in size from the smallest atom to the largest collection of matter known to astronomers.”

“What is the largest collection of matter known to astronomers?” Reich punched DIAGRAM.

Click-pause-click. “The sun.” The crystal plate displayed a dazzling picture of the sun in speed-up action.

“But what about the others? The stars?”

Click-pause-click. “There are no stars.”

“The planets?”

Click-pause-click. “There is the earth.” A picture or the revolving earth appeared.

“The other planets? Mars? Jupiter? Saturn…”

Click-pause-click. “There are no other planets.”

“The moon?”

Click-pause-click. “There is no moon.”

Reich took a deep trembling breath. “We’ll try it again. Go back to the sun.”

The sun appeared again in the crystal. “The sun is the largest collection of matter known to astronomers,” the canned voice began. Suddenly it stopped. Click-pause-click. The picture of the sun began to fade slowly. The voice spoke. “There is no sun.”

The model disappeared, leaving behind it an afterimage that looked up at Reich… looming, silent, horrible… The Man With No Face.

Reich howled. He leaped to his feet, knocking the desk chair backward. He picked it up and smashed it down on that frightful image. He turned and blundered out of the library into the lab, and thence to the corridor. At the Vertical Pneumatique, he punched STREET. The door opened, he staggered in and was dropped 57 stories to the Main Hall of Monarch’s Science-city.

It was filled with early workers hurrying to their offices. As Reich pushed past them, he caught the astonished glances at his cut and bleeding face. Then he was aware of a dozen uniformed Monarch guards closing in on him. He ran down the hall and with a frantic burst of speed and dodged the guards. He slipped into the revolving doors and whirled through to the footway. There he jerked to a stop as though he had ran into white hot iron. There was no sun.