They came to the end of the stretch of corridor that led in from the entrance. It branched there, going left and right. On the wall of the left branch was a yellow line—not a straight line (Jerry had started wondering if the aliens believed in straight lines), but a line. A little beyond it was an opening in the wall. Another corridor? A way up? A way down? He couldn’t tell.

Steve took more pictures, facing into both branches. Then he stashed the camera in his belt pouch. He wrote on the pad again: Let’s go.

Jerry didn’t argue with him. They’d got in. Nothing had tried to kill them. For a first try, that would do. They retraced their steps, Steve in the lead this time. He turned around and got down, awkwardly leaving Humpty Dumpty tuchus-first. Jerry jumped down, feet thumping on the steel of the gate with a good honest thud.

Steve was staring and pointing. Jerry spun around. The airlock door was back in place. How it had got there, Jerry had no idea. Chances were, no one else on Earth did, either.

The Glomar Explorer didn’t have a conference room. Dale Neuwirth’s cabin did duty for one now. The mission director was there, along with Jack and Dave and Steve and Jerry. There weren’t enough chairs. Jack and Dave sat on the bed.

Dale shut the door and locked it. He put on a Bing Crosby tape to make sure no one going down the corridor could overhear anything that went on. Jerry let out a resigned internal sigh—it was his father’s kind of music. The other men in the cabin seemed to enjoy it. They would, he thought.

“Doc Borden says you guys both check out clean, as far as he can tell,” Dale said. “You feel all right?”

“Fine,” Stephen Dole answered.

“I guess so,” Jerry said. After getting out of the suit, getting checked for radioactivity, and taking three showers with hot water, harsh soap, and a brush, he’d fallen into the doctor’s hands. He’d breathed over culture medium. He’d spat into another flask of it. Then he’d had his mouth cleansed with nasty antiseptic, his mouth and as far down his throat as a swab would reach without making him puke. After that, he’d had to turn the other cheek for an enema. He’d enjoyed none of it.

“Good. We have to be careful, you know,” Dale said. Jerry grudged a nod, wishing he could take everything in stride like Steve. The mission director went on, “I want to congratulate you for finding a nondestructive way to get into Humpty Dumpty. Your cleverness will be noted in the report.”