Publisher's Synopsis
Ben Amherst is a cree collector on Ganymede in the year 2083. Although he normally operates alone, he finds himself accompanied on one of his rounds by a tourist from Earth named Kirt Scaler. Scaler plans to travel with Amherst to the village of Aquia, then remain there for two months while Amherst continues on his rounds. Amherst finds Scaler strangely knowledgeable about conditions on Ganymede for someone who claims never to have left Earth before.Reaching Aquia, Amherst and Scaler find that its chief trader, Carl Kent, has gone missing; his teenage daughter Carol is carrying on in his place. Kent's disappearance is ominous since he has only recently worked out a process for distilling crephine from red moss. While Aquia is drowned in the flood, Scaler spends most of his time with Carol Kent.A day and a half before the tide is due to ebb away from Aquia, Carol Kent discovers that her father's notes on his red moss distillation process are missing. Amherst remembers a rumour he heard that red moss has been discovered on Io; Scaler, he realizes, must be working for Ionian Products, a company seeking to break Cree, Inc.'s crephine monopoly. If they succeed, it will mean hard times for everyone on Ganymede. Aquia is searched for Scaler, to no avail. Suddenly one of the valves leading to the surface opens; Scaler is using it to escape Aquia with Carl Kent's notes. Amherst sends Kent to get him a vacuum suit; when she returns with it, she is wearing one herself. He tells her to remain in the settlement, but she ignores his order and follows him up the aqueduct.
