adpiece to his ears and flicked a small
switch. It was suddenly bathed in a warm orange glow. "This way, the
device functions as a limited range mentacom," he began. And then he
flicked the switch again. "And now, as a teleprobe, you see, I could
tell you, Lady Judith, just what--"

She flushed furiously, but Kriijorl had suddenly stopped speaking. His
face had blanched, and a look of bewildered fury was suddenly in his
eyes.

"Lieutenant! That air bus! There!" He pointed to a thick egg shaped
vehicle speeding to the north. "Tell your chauffeur to pursue it at
once! It carries a full passenger-load of Earthwomen!"

For a moment Mason thought the Ihelian was attempting some strange
joke. But a look at the man's face told him that here was no joke;
that here was something he was failing to understand.

"Earthwomen? Sure--"

"Plus two other beings, Lieutenant. Two others using Thrayxite probe
screens!"

On Mason's order the government chauffeur swiftly heeled the helio
about. "Those buses can make nearly a full Mach when they're wide open
like that one," he told Kriijorl. "We can't overtake them, but maybe
we can keep up. I'll have the chauffeur try for radio contact--"

"No, no! They'll be alert for any signs of awareness of their
presence! Wait--" The Ihelian made a third adjustment on the mentacom,
and it emitted a slight humming sound, and the orange glow vanished.
"This will screen us for a short period, at least," he said. "And if
we've not been already detected, perhaps we'll be able to follow. If
you'll continue to help me, Lieutenant--"

"Looks as though they've got some of ours, doesn't it?" Mason said
evenly. There was a strange heat in his veins now, and with the
Ihelian, his nervousness was somehow evaporated. "But how the devil--"

"They are clever, Lieutenant. We were somehow followed here even as we
at first followed you in your Scout ship. We may have been probed
before you were taken aboard our screened destroyer."

"But you said nothing about destroying _their_ breeders," Judith said
above the throbbing roar of the helio's fast accelerating jets. "Why
would they want--" and she let the sentence die as comprehension
snapped in her gray eyes. Her dark, slender eyebrows arched nearly
together as she pushed the thought further.

The borderlands of Canada sped beneath them, and then there was pine
forest, but the helio kept the fleeing bus in sight even as the
shadows of a dying day crept inexor