The guard was wearing a cap too, the visor shadowing his face, and Mike couldn't tell if it was the agent he'd been shown in the picture.
"Oh, yes!" Mike told him, "Of course!" He reached in his pant's pockets and to his relief found a black leather wallet with some phony identification papers and a card in it. The guard studied them for the longest time, then said,
"I'm sorry, sir, but I'll have to verify this with the main security office. We've been having trouble here on the base and all newcomers have to be thoroughly checked out before given permission to enter."
Mike tensed, trying not to show it physically, but before the guard went into the white booth to use the phone he turned around enough so Mike could read his name tag clearly. It read Sgt. Green. Before Sgt. Green could touch the telephone, Mike spoke up.
"The lad from Washington is here!" he said in a low voice.
Slowly, Sgt. Green turned back around to face Mike. "All right, sir, everything's o.k.," was his reply. "I'm glad to see you've arrived safely."
"How is everything going as far as any clues are concerned?"
"Not good at all. We haven't come up with a thing yet. We've been hoping you can find something new."
"I'm going to try my best," Mike replied.
Green gave him the directions to Chris Pick's quarters so Mike hurried there next, almost getting lost in the maze of apartment buildings set up specifically for service personnel. Finally, a couple of young marines who had been friends of the missing man met Mike and gave him exact directions to his destination, Once inside the small apartment, he searched for an object which he could hold easily in the palm of his hand to "home in" on Chris' vibrations with. At last he discovered the laundry bag, hanging half full, from the lower bed post. The clothes would give Mike the best lead ever. He dumped its contents onto the rug and found the usual things....t-shirts, shorts and socks. Mike finally picked up a t-shirt and held it tightly to his chest, between the palms of his hands. The vibrations with it were strong. It must have been the last thing he wore before he disappeared.
When Mike could feel the vibration without having to hold the shirt, he vanished from the room and sped toward the place it seemed to be drawing him. When the vibrations felt the strongest, he reappeared again and found himself, of all places, in an orange grove. After a small search of the place, he was pleased to learn he was alone. The only building nearby was a small shed used to store tools and other equipment. There were many oranges rotting on the ground as if the grove had been neglected for a long, long, time, and he noticed the ground had been disturbed in several places. The vibrations led him to one of these places underneath a large tree. Mike had a sinking sensation come over him, and stood at the end of the square of freshly dug earth, staring at it. Then he shook himself, and rushed to the tool shed,  finding a rusty shovel.