d checked the corridor
outside again. There was no sound in the darkness there, no sign of
movement. Somewhere far below he heard metal banging on metal; minutes
before he thought he had heard the sharp ripping sound of a stunner
blast overhead, but he wasn't sure. Wherever the fighting was going on,
it was not here.

He shook his head as his uneasiness mounted. Why hadn't Johnny come
back? He'd gone off to try and disable the Ranger ship leaving Greg to
guard the control cabin. Why no sign of the marauders in the control
cabin corridor? This should have been the first place they would head
for, if they planned to take the ship, but there had been nothing but
silence and darkness. Johnny had been gone near 15 minutes already. Greg
became more uneasy.

He waited. Suddenly, bitterly, he realized the hopelessness of it. Even
if Johnny did manage to damage the Ranger ship, what difference would it
make? They had been fools to come out here, idiots to ignore Tawney's
warning, the three of them. Tawney had told them in so many words that
there would be trouble, and they had come out anyway, just begging for
it.

Well, now they had what they'd begged for. Greg slammed his fist into
his palm angrily. What had they expected? That the big company would
step humbly aside for them, with a fortune hanging in the balance? If
they had even begun to think it through before they started....

But they hadn't, and now it was too late. They were under attack; Johnny
was off on a fool's errand, gone too long for comfort, and Tom ... Greg
glanced at his watch. It had been ten minutes since Tom's call. What had
he meant by it? A plan, he said. A long chance.

He couldn't shake off the cold feeling in his chest when he thought
about Tom. What if something happened to him....

Greg remembered how he had grown to resent his brother. The time when
they were very young and Tom had been struck by the sickness, a native
Martian virus they called it. He remembered the endless nights of
attention given to Tom alone. From then on somehow they weren't friends
any more. But now all that seemed to disappear and Greg only wished that
Tom would appear down the corridor....

A sound startled him. He tensed, gripping the stunner, peering into the
darkness. Had he heard something? Or was it his own foot scraping on
the deck plate? He held his breath, listening, and the sound came
again, louder.

Someone was moving stealthily up the corridor.

Greg