tact with
Dark. His mind turned to hers at once.

Dark: _Maya! Where are you?_

Maya: _Come into my room, darling. I'm at the Canfell Hydroponic Farm.
Are you still at Ultra Vires?_

Dark: _No, I'm in the vats below you. I knew you were here, but I didn't
know where. I can see your room now, though, and its place in the
building._

Maya: _Can you free me?_

Dark: _Not now. There are four Toughs outside your door, guarding it. I
can't attack them without arousing the Masters. Soon, though._

Maya: _I don't know how I'm doing this. I didn't know I had telepathic
powers._

Dark: _A good many people have them, potentially. They don't have to
have been "changed," as I was. But they usually require development._

Maya: _I'm just glad I can, to know that you're here._

Dark: _Maya, why are you in pain?_

Maya: _Nuwell has been whipping me, to try to get me to recant on my
expressions of support for the rebel cause._

There was a white-hot explosion in her brain that almost literally
seared her mind. Staggered at its impact, she recognized it as the
explosion of Dark's sudden anger. Then she was no longer in contact with
him.

A hundred feet away, in another room, Nuwell pulled on a pair of black
gloves and picked up a short, thick-lashed whip. Coiling the whip, he
stepped out into the corridor, and turned toward Maya's room.

He met Placer, walking in the opposite direction.

"You're going to make your last try, now?" asked Placer.

"Yes," replied Nuwell. "I hope it works. Actually, her spirit and quick
wit are among the reasons I like the girl. But I don't intend to be
defied in this."

He proceeded on down the hall.

As he started past the barred gate to one of the ramps leading down into
the vats below, the buzzer beside it sounded. A Jelly was standing
behind the gate, fat, pathetic face pressed against the bars.

Nuwell stopped. No one else was in sight in the corridor.

"What do you want?" he asked the Jelly.

"Master, I seek entry in answer to the summons," replied the Jelly in a
voice that quavered with fright.

"What summons?"

"It was ordered that one of us come above and do a task for the
Masters," replied the Jelly. "I am one of those who must work today, and
I have come in answer to the summons."

Nuwell looked up and down the corridor. He saw no one.

"What sort of task?" he asked, reluctant to accept the responsibility of
admitting the Jelly.

"I don't know, Master."

"Look,"