opened ahead, showing no trace of human
habitation; at its far end began open land, dotted with small tobacco
farms where automatic cultivators moved unhurriedly about. Kilby,
glancing back over her shoulder at Halder for a moment, swung around
towards one of the farms, gliding down close to the ground, Halder
twenty feet behind her. They settled down beside a hedge at the foot of
a slope covered with tobacco plants. A small gate in the hedge
immediately swung open.

"All clear here, folks!" a voice curiously similar to Halder's addressed
them from the gate speaker.

Rane Rellis, a lanky, red-headed man with a wide-boned face, was
striding down the slope towards them as they moved through the gate. "We
got your alert," he said, "but as it happens, we'd already realized that
something had gone wrong."

[Illustration]

Kilby gave him a startled glance. "Somebody has been checking on you,
too?"

"Not that ... at least as far as we know. Come on up to the shed.
Santin's already inside the mountain." As they started along the narrow
path between the rows of plants, Rellis went on, "The first responses
to our inquiries came in today. One of them looked very promising.
Santin flew her car to Draise immediately to inform you about it. She
scanned your home as usual before calling, discovered three strange men
waiting inside."

"When was this?" Halder interrupted.

[Illustration]

"A few minutes after one o'clock. Santin checked at once at your place
of work and Kilby's, learned you both were absent, deduced you were
still at large and probably on your way here. She called to tell me
about it. Your alert signal sounded almost before she'd finished
talking."

Halder glanced at Kilby. "We seem to have escaped arrest by something
like five minutes," he remarked dryly. "Were you able to bring the
records with you, Rane?"

"Yes, everything. If we get clear of Orado, we can pick up almost where
we left off." Rane Rellis swung the door of the cultivator shed open and
followed them in, closing and locking the door behind him. They crossed
quickly through the small building to an open wall portal at the far
end. Beyond the portal a large, brightly lit room was visible,
comfortably furnished, windowless. Between that room and the shed the
portal spanned a distance of seven miles, a vital point in the
organization of their escape route. If they were traced this far, the
trail would end--temporarily, at least--at the ranch.