p, sergeant. There are people I want to
see!"

They were streaming for open Space within less than thirty minutes
from the time Cain had freed her. She didn't ask him how he'd gotten
permission for the fleet R-IX's use, or how he'd obtained her voucher,
nor did she ask him how he had learned of what had happened to Lance
and Kriijorl, yet she knew that somehow he was aware of the Thrayxites
and their plot. Cain had ways of learning the things he wanted to
learn, getting the things he wanted to get.

"Keep an eye on the scanner for me, will you, beautiful?"

"Yes sir."

"And forget that sir stuff! Look, Judy--"

"For what do you want me to watch, sir?"

Cain grunted, gave a shrug of his powerful shoulders and turned his
attention back to the pursuit's compact control console.

"Two blips, honey. Tearing hell-for-leather out of old Sol's little
family. One'll be chasing the other, if my guess is any good. We want
the front one."

"But--but that would be the--"

"The Thrayxite crowd. Right?"

For a moment she was silent. She knew he could not mean to attack; not
with a tiny pursuit, swift as it was.

"Mister Cain, I can only guess at what you intend doing. But it will
be my privilege in court to testify concerning your conduct of
custodianship--"

"You must be working on the assumption that we're going back there,
sweetheart!"

"You--"

"A deal is where you find it! Watch for that front blip, sergeant.
With what we know of Kriijorl and his crowd, this oughta be a
natural!"

* * * * *

The cubicle in which he awoke was softly lit, and the painful throb
Mason knew should be splitting his head apart was strangely absent.
Kriijorl was bending over him, loosening the tightness of the military
collar at his throat.

"They certainly were taking no chances with you," he said. His long
Viking's hair was matted with blood just above the temple, yet he
seemed to be suffering little pain, himself. "How do you feel?"

"O.K. I guess. Don't feel anything, really...." Kriijorl unbuckled the
wide straps that held him solidly in an acceleration-hammock, and he
sat up. The steel-walled room rocked for a moment, then steadied.

"The Thrayxites are not vicious, any more than we. If they do not kill
outright, they apparently take medical precaution to see that their
victims suffer as little pain as possible. We're captives, however,
together with your Earthwomen. We've been in flight for