Rick returns to San Francisco and meets with Inspector Harry Bryant. Bryant tells him that the first andy he is to go after is the one that shot Dave Holden - Polokov. Polokov works as a trash scavenger, one of the most important industries in the post World War Terminus age, and can mimic an “anthead.” Bryant also tells Rick that a Soviet cop will be joining him to observe Rick’s of the android.
Rick goes by Polokov’s work place, but the android is not there. He then goes to Polokov’s apartment building where he uses a Penfield wave transmitter to freeze every living thing in its vicinity. He enters Polokov’s apartment with an Infinity Key, but no is there. Rick assumes that Polokov left soon after shooting Dave Holden. A phone call from Rachael Rosen comes in from Seattle and Rachael offers to help Rick retire the Nexus-6 androids, logically arguing that a Nexus-6 would be more likely to talk to another android then to a human. Rick declines the offer and Rachael warns that “one of them will get you before you can get it.”
Rick is joined by the Russian cop, Kadalyi, who works for the W.P.O., a police organization that represents Russia. Rick notices that Kadalyi has a rather strange looking laser gun and Kadalyi tells him he got it on Mars. While Rick is handling the weapon, he realizes that Kadalyi is really Polokov and the two men begin to tussle in Rick’s hovercraft. Polokov attempts to fire a laser at Rick, but Rick has used a Sine wave to diffuse the laser’s beam. Rick fires a shot from his standard pistol and the bullet shatters the android’s head. Rick calls Bryant to tell him that Polokov has been retired.
He then turns his attention to the next andy that he will retire, Luba Luft. Miss Luft is an opera singer with the San Francisco Opera. Rick knows quite a bit about opera and believes this will be his in with the android. He calls his wife, Iran, to check on her and to tell her that he had just made $1000 on the bounty, but Iran is mired in a deep depression caused by the mood organ. He angrily hangs up on her and secretly thinks that he should leave her because she doesn’t care about life or if they ever get an ostrich or not. Rick begins to think about Luft and other female androids and realizes he has a secret physical attraction to some of them. He takes off in his hovercraft towards the San Francisco Opera House.