alet simply wasn't really intelligent. And the plot to shanghai
TT was hardly even a side issue now.

Telzey snapped the tiny library shut, fastened it to the belt of her
sunsuit and went over to the open window. A two-foot ledge passed
beneath the window, leading to the roof of a patio on the right.
Fifty yards beyond the patio, the garden ended in a natural-stone
wall. Behind it lay one of the big wooded park areas which formed most
of the ground level of Port Nichay.

Tick-Tock wasn't in sight. A sound of voices came from ground-floor
windows on the left. Halet had brought her maid and chauffeur along;
and a chef had showed up in time to make breakfast this morning, as
part of the city's guest house service. Telzey took the empty valise
to the window, set it on end against the left side of the frame, and
let the window slide down until its lower edge rested on the valise.
She went back to the house guard-screen panel beside the door, put her
finger against the lock button, and pushed.

The sound of voices from the lower floor was cut off as outer doors
and windows slid silently shut all about the house. Telzey glanced
back at the window. The valise had creaked a little as the guard field
drove the frame down on it, but it was supporting the thrust. She
returned to the window, wriggled feet foremost through the opening,
twisted around and got a footing on the ledge.

A minute later, she was scrambling quietly down a vine-covered patio
trellis to the ground. Even after they discovered she was gone, the
guard screen would keep everybody in the house for some little while.
They'd either have to disengage the screen's main mechanisms and start
poking around in them, or force open the door to her bedroom and get
the lock unset. Either approach would involve confusion, upset
tempers, and generally delay any organized pursuit.

Telzey edged around the patio and started towards the wall, keeping
close to the side of the house so she couldn't be seen from the
windows. The shrubbery made minor rustling noises as she threaded her
way through it ... and then there was a different stirring which might
have been no more than a slow, steady current of air moving among the
bushes behind her. She shivered involuntarily but didn't look back.

She came to the wall, stood still, measuring its height, jumped and
got an arm across it, swung up a knee and squirmed up and over. She
came down on her feet with a small thump in the grass