t'sleep! I mean--Chief! It's--"

"Shut up!" Jason hissed. "Holland! If you've let anyone slip past you
out of that house--"

"Nobody did. You know me better than that, Chief."

"Adams! McGillis! Johnson! What's happening?"

"Nothing ..."

"Not a thing ..."

"_Johnson!_" Jason licked suddenly dry lips. "Dammit, Johnson,
report!... _Johnson!_"

Silence.

Grimly, Jason watched the vertical bar of different brightness edge back
to the Fane's East wall and disappear into the even dazzle of the
marble. He had a feeling it wasn't any use calling Johnson again. Ever.

"Chief, what's up? What do we do?"

"Huh? Oh ... You, Holland, get over to the East Entry as fast as your
legs'll stretch."

"There in three minutes flat!"

"You, too, McGillis."

"On my way!"

"Adams, you stick at that West Entry. If anything gets past you, I'll--"

"Don't worry, Chief. I've got Johnson to even up for."

Not watching how he ran, Jason hurled himself toward the East Entry; his
eyes following, in the opposite direction, a dullness moving in the
blaze inside the Fane. A smoothly moving, white on white, unfaced ghost
of whiteness within, a part of, the blazing radionic light. Just as he
rounded the East end of the Fane, he glimpsed the vertical bar of
whiteness again--the edge of the marble slab that was the entry door,
reflecting the blazing light at a different angle. Behind it, McGillis's
tightly grinning face. Under McGillis's face, the stab of blue-white
light reflected a glancing ray from the old-fashioned solid-missile
service pistol that Jason had insisted all four men arm themselves with
for this assignment.

Over the sound of his own labored breathing as he plunged through the
East Entry, Jason heard panting behind him. Holland. Holland bettering
his promised three minutes--and with a forbidden disarmer in his hand.
Guiltily, Jason felt the weight of the disarmer he had himself secreted
under his armpit.

Then there wasn't time for thinking or feeling, only for running down
the dazzling half-mile inside the Fane to the Tiara. Up ahead, the
different-white shape was motionless in front of it. Oddly, a dark,
vertical line appeared from the top to what would be the waist of the
shape. And for the instant it took the Tiara to vanish inside, Jason saw
clearly in the radiant light the profile of Lonnie's unmistakable face.
Saw Lonnie's eyes swivel in the direction of the thundering echoes of
their footfalls in the silenc