EVASION AND PREDICTION .2.

A subgroup G less than or equal to Z(omega) exhibits the Specker pheno menon if every homomorphism G --> Z maps almost all unit vectors to O. We give several combinatorial characterizations of the cardinal se, t he size of the smallest G less than or equal to Z(omega) exhibiting th e Specker phenomenon. We also prove the consistency of b < e, where b is the unbounding number and e the evasion number. Our results answer several questions addressed by Blass.