Meanwhile, we're wasting
time. I'm sending the boys in now. You'll make it easier for yourself if
you submit without giving them any trouble."

The door opened, then. Pell caught a quick glimpse of the other room and
saw that it was a tastefully furnished living room. He recognized it,
and knew where he was. This was a country house of Larkin's, topside,
not far from the outskirts of World City. Whoever turned the freezer on
him must have set the control at high intensity because it would take at
least an hour to get to this place from the Stardust Cafe and he had
been unconscious at least that long.

He had the momentary impulse to rush that partly opened door--and then
the boys, as Larkin had called them, appeared.

* * * * *

They were specialists, little doubt of that. They regarded Pell with
flat, almost disinterested looks as the door closed behind them. One
held a hypodermic needle. He was the shorter of the two, but he had
shoulders like ox-yokes. His face had been kneaded in the prize ring,
and his bare arms were muscular and hairy but the top of his head was
bald. The other had red hair, close-cropped. He was big and
well-proportioned; Pell might have taken him for a professional football
player.

Red did the talking. He spoke quietly, almost pleasantly. "Gonna
cooperate?" he asked Pell.

Pell said, "You touch me, brother, and I'll make your face look like
Baldy's."

Red glanced at Baldy and seemed to sigh. Abruptly he whirled, jumped at
Pell and brought a sizzling right hand punch through the air. Pell
ducked it. He saw Baldy move in as he did so, and a painful blow struck
the back of his neck. His teeth rattled when it struck. Something caught
him under the chin, straightened him. When he was straight a pile driver
struck him in the midsection.

It was all over within a matter of seconds. Under different
circumstances Pell might have found time to admire their technique.

As it was, he was now face down on the floor and Red was straddling him,
holding him there. The pain in his stomach made him gasp. His face and
the back of his neck ached terribly.

Red had his arm in the small of his back. Pell tried to struggle.

"I can break the arm if you move," said Red cheerfully.

And then Pell felt the bite of the needle just below his shoulder.

A misty feeling came. He felt as though he were in a red whirlpool,
spinning, going down--down.... He fought to rise. He cou