The Lion Game

--by James H. Schmitz

(book version)

Chapter 1

Telzey was about to sit down for a

snack in her bungalow before

evening classes when the ring she'd

worn on her left forefinger for the

past week gave her a sting.

It was a fairly emphatic sting.

Emphatic enough to have brought her

out of a sound sleep if she'd

happened to be sleeping. She

grimaced, pulled off the ring,

rubbed her finger, slipped the ring

back on, went to the ComWeb and

tapped a button.

Elsewhere on the grounds of

Pehanron College several other

ComWebs started burring a special

signal. One or the other of them

would now be switched on, and

somebody would listen to what she

had to say. She'd become used to

that; the realization didn't

disturb her.

What she said to her course

computer was, "This is Telzey

Amberdon. Cancel me for both

classes tonight."

The computer acknowledged. Winter

rains had been pounding against

Pehanron's weather shields

throughout the day. Telzey got into

boots, long coat and gloves,

wrapped a scarf around her head,

and went out to the carport at the

back of the bungalow. A few minutes

later, her car slid out of

Pehanron's main gate, switched on

its fog beams and arrowed up into a

howling storm.

Somebody would be following her

through the dark sky. She'd got

used to that, too.

* * *

She went into a public ComWeb booth

not long after leaving the college

and dialed a number. The screen lit

up and a face appeared.

"Hello, Klayung," she said. "I got

your signal. I'm calling from

Beale."

"I know," said Klayung. He was an

executive of the Psychology

Service, old, stringy,

mild-mannered. "Leave the booth,

turn left, walk down to the corner.

There's a car waiting."

"All right," Telzey said. "Anything

else?"

"Not till I see you."

It was raining as hard on Beale as

on Pehanron, and this section of

the town had no weather shielding.

Head bent, Telzey ran down the

street to the comer. The door to

the back compartment of a big

aircar standing there opened as she

came up. She slipped inside. The

door closed.

Clouds blotted out the lights of

Beale below as she was fishing

tissues from her purse to dry her

face. The big car was a space job

though it didn't look like one. She

could see the driver silhouetted

beyond the partition. They were

alone in the car.

She directed a mental tap at the

driver, touched a mind shield,

standard Psychology Service type.

There was no flicker of response or

recognition, so he was no

psi-operator.

Telzey settled back on the seat.

Life had become a rather

complicated business these days.

She'd reported her experiences in

Melna Park to the Psychology

Service, which, among other things,

handled problems connected with psi

and did it quietly to avoid

disturbing the public. The Service

people went to work on the

information she could give them.

While she waited for results from

that quarter, she had some matters

to take care of herself.

Until now, her psi armament had

seemed adequate. She should be able

to wind up her law studies at

Pehanron in another year, and she'd

intended to wait till then before

giving serious attention to psi and

what could be done with it -- or,

at any rate, to what she could do

with it.

Clearly, that idea had better be

dropped at once! Half a psi talent

could turn into a dangerous gift

when it drew the attention of

others who didn't stick to halfway

measures. She'd made a few

modifications immediately. When she

locked her screens into a shield

now, they stayed locked without

further attention, whether she was

drowsy, wide awake or sound asleep,

until she decided to open them

again. particular problem

wouldn't recur! What she needed,

however, was a general crash course

in dealing with unfriendly

mentalities of more than average

capability. The Service might be

willing to train her, but not

necessarily along the lines she

wanted. Besides, she preferred not

to become too obligated to them.

There was a psi she knew, an

independent like herself, who

should have the required experience,

if she could get him to share it.

Sams Larking wasn't exactly a

friend. He was, in fact,

untrustworthy, unethical,

underhanded and sneaky. The point

nevertheless was that he was

psi-sneaky in a highly accomplished

manner, and packed a heavy mind

clout. Telzey looked him up.

"Why should I help make you any

tougher than you are?" Sams

inquired.

She explained that Service

operators had been giving her too

much attention lately. She didn't

like the idea of having somebody

prying around her like that.

Sams grunted. He hated the

Psychology Service.

"Been up to something they don't

approve of, eh?" he said. "All

right. Let's see if we can't have a

few surprises ready for them the

next time. You want to be able to

spot them without letting them spot

you, or send them home with

lumps -- that kind of thing?"

"That kind of thing," Telzey

agreed. "I particularly want to

learn how to work through my own

screens. I've noticed you're very

good at that.... The lumps could be

sort of permanent, too!"

Sams looked briefly startled.

"Getting rather ferocious, aren't

you?" He studied her. "Well, we'll

see how much you can handle. It

can't be done in an hour or two,

you know. Drop in at the ranch

first thing this weekend, and we'll

give it a couple of days. The house

is psi-blocked, in case somebody

comes snooping."

He added, "I'll behave. Word of

honor! This will be business -- if I

can sharpen you up enough, you

might be useful to me some day. Get

a good night's rest before you

come. I'll work you till you're

begging to quit."

Work her relentlessly he did.

Telzey didn't ask for time out. She

was being drilled through

techniques it might have taken her

months to develop by herself. They

discovered she could handle them.

Then something went wrong.

She didn't know immediately what it

was. She looked over at Sams.

He was smiling, a bit unpleasantly.

"Controlled, aren't you?"

Telzey felt a touch of

apprehension. She considered.

"Yes," she said, "I am. I must be!

But--"

She hesitated. Sams nodded.

"You've been under control for the

past half-hour. You wouldn't know

it now if I hadn't let you know

it -- and you still don't understand

how it's being done, so there's

nothing you can do about it, is

there?" He grinned suddenly, and

Telzey felt the psi controls she

hadn't been able to sense till then

release her.

"Just a demonstration, this time!"

Sams said. "Don't let yourself get

caught again. Get a few hours'

sleep, and we'll go on. You're a

good student."

Around the middle of the second

day, he said, "You've done fine!

There really isn't much more I can

do for you. But now a special

gimmick. I never expected to show

it to anyone, but let's see if you

can work it. It takes plenty of

coordination. Screens tight, both

sides. You scan. If I spot you, you

get jolted so hard your teeth

rattle!"

After a few seconds, she said, "I'm

there."

Sams nodded.

"Good! I can't tell it. Now I'll

leave you an opening, just a flash.

You're to try to catch it and slam

me at the same instant."

"Well, wait a moment!" Telzey said.

"Supposing I don't just try -- I do

it?"

"Don't worry. I'll block. Watch out

for the counter!"

Sams's screen opening flicked

through her awareness five seconds

later. She slammed. But,

squeamishly perhaps, she held back

somewhat on the bolt.

It took her an hour to bring Sams

around. He sat up groggily at last.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Never mind.

Good-by! Go home. You've

graduated. I'm a little sorry for

the Service."

* * *

Telzey knew she hadn't given the

Service much to work on, but there

were a few possible lines of

general investigation. Since the

Melna Park psis apparently had set

Robane the task of developing psi

machines for them, they should be

interested in psi machines

generally. They might, or might

not, be connected with the criminal

ring with which he'd had contacts;

if they were, they presumably

controlled it. And, of course, they

definitely did make use of a

teleporting creature, of which

there seemed to be no record

otherwise, to kill people.

She'd been able to add one other

thing about them which could be

significant. They might be a mutant

strain of humanity. The impressions

of the thought forms she'd retained

seemed to have a distinctive

quality she'd never sensed in human

minds before.

A machine copied the impressions

from her memory. They were

analyzed, checked against Service

files. They did have a distinctive

quality, and it was one which

wasn't on record. Special

investigators with back-up teams

began to scan Orado systematically,

trying to pick up mental traces

which might match the impressions,

while outfits involved in psi

technology, along with assorted

criminal organizations, were

scrutinized for indications of

telepathic control. Neither

approach produced results.

The Service went on giving Orado

primary attention but extended its

investigations next to the Hub

worlds in general. There the sheer

size of the Hub's populations

raised immense difficulties. Psi

machines were regarded by many as a

coming thing; on a thousand worlds,

great numbers of people currently

were trying to develop effective

designs. Another multitude, of

course, was involved in organized

crime. Eccentric forms of murder,

including a variety which

conceivably could have been carried

out by Telzey's psi beasts, were

hardly uncommon. Against such a

background, the secretive psis

might remain invisible

indefinitely.

"Nevertheless," Klayung, who was in

charge of the Service operation,

told Telzey, "we may be getting a

pattern! It's not too substantial,

but it's consistent. If it

indicates what it seems to, the

people you became involved with are

neither a local group nor a small

one. In fact, they appear to be

distributed rather evenly about the

more heavily populated Federation

worlds."

She didn't like that. "What kind of

pattern is it?"

"Violent death, without witnesses

and of recurring specific types --

types which could be explained by

your teleporting animal. The beast

kills but not in obvious beast

manner. It remains under restraint.

If, for example, it had been able

to reach you in Melna Park, it

might have broken your neck,

dropped you out of your aircar, and

vanished. Elsewhere it might have

smothered or strangled you,

suggesting a human assailant. There

are a number of variations

repetitive enough to be included in

the pattern. We're trying to

establish connections among the

victims. So far we don't have any.

You remain our best lead."

Telzey already had concluded that.

There were no detectable signs, but

she was closely watched, carefully

guarded. If another creature like

Bozo the Beast should materialize

suddenly in her college bungalow

while she was alone, it would be

dead before it touched her. That

was reassuring at present. But it

didn't solve the problem.

Evidence that the psis had found

her developed within ten days. As

Klayung described it, there was now

a new kind of awareness of Telzey

about Pehanron College, of her

coming and going. Not among friends

and acquaintances but among people

she barely knew by sight, who,

between them, were in a good

position to tell approximately

where she was, what she did, much

of the time. Then there was the

matter of the ComWebs. No attempt

had been made to tamper with the

instrument in her bungalow. But a

number of other ComWebs responded

whenever it was switched on; and

her conversations were monitored.

"These people aren't controlled in

the ordinary sense," Klayung

remarked. "They've been given a

very few specific instructions,

carry them out, and don't know

they're doing it. They have no

conscious interest in you. And they

haven't been touched in any other

way. All have wide-open minds.

Somebody presumably scans those

minds periodically for information.

He hasn't been caught at it.

Whoever arranged this is a highly

skilled operator. It's an

interesting contrast to that first,

rather crude, trap prepared for

you."

"That one nearly worked," Telzey

said thoughtfully. "Nobody's tried

to probe me here -- I've been waiting

for it. They know who I am, and

they must be pretty sure I'm the

one who did away with Bozo. You

think they suspect I'm being

watched?"

"I'd suspect it in their place,"

Klayung said. "They know who you

are -- not what you are. Possibly a

highly talented junior Service

operator. We're covered, I think.

But I'd smell a trap. We have to

assume that whoever is handling the

matter on their side also smells a

trap."

"Then what's going to happen?"

Klayung shrugged.

"I know it isn't pleasant, Telzey,

but it's a waiting game here --

unless they make a move. They may

not do it. They may simply fade

away again."

She made a small grimace. "That's

what I'm afraid of!"

"I know. But we're working on other

approaches. They've been able to

keep out of our way so far. But

we're aware of them now -- we'll be

watching for slips, and sooner or

later we'll pick up a line to

them."

Sooner or later! She didn't like it

at all! She'd become a pawn. A

well-protected one -- but one with no

scrap of privacy left, under

scrutiny from two directions. She

didn't blame Klayung or the

Service. For them, this was one

problem among very many they had to

handle, always short of

sufficiently skilled personnel,

always trying to recruit any psi of

the slightest usable ability who

was willing to be recruited. She

was one of those who hadn't been

willing, not wanting the

restrictions it would place on her.

She couldn't complain.

But she couldn't accept the

situation either. It had to be

resolved.

Somehow....

Chapter 2

"What do you know about Tinokti?"

Klayung asked.

"Tinokti?" Telzey had been

transferred from the car that

picked her up in Beale to a small

space cruiser standing off Orado.

She, Klayung, and the car driver

seemed to be the only people

aboard. "I haven't been there, and

I haven't made a special study of

it." She reflected. "Nineteen hours

liner time from Orado. Rather dense

population. High living standards.

World-wide portal circuit system --

the most involved in the

Federation. A social caste system

that's also pretty involved.

Government by syndicate -- a

scientific body, the Tongi Phon.

Corrupt, but they have plenty of

popular support. As scientists

they're supposed to be outstanding

in a number of fields." She

shrugged. "That's it, mainly. Is it

enough?"

Klayung nodded. "For now. I'll fill

you in. The Tongi Phon's not

partial to the Service. They've

been working hard at developing a

psi technology of their own.

They've got farther than most, but

still not very far. Their approach

is much too conservative --

paradoxes disturb them. But they've

learned enough to be aware of a

number of possibilities. That's

made them suspicious of us."

"Well, they might have a good deal

to hide," Telzey said.

"Definitely. They do what they can

to limit our activities. A majority

of the commercial and private

circuits are psi-blocked, as a

result of a carefully underplayed

campaign of psi and psi machine

scares. The Tongi Phon Institute is

blocked, of course; the Phons wear

mind shields. Tinokti in general

presents extraordinary operational

difficulties. So it was something

of a surprise when we got a request

for help today from the Tongi

Phon."

"Help in what?" Telzey asked.

"Four high-ranking Phons," Klayung

explained, "were found dead

together in a locked and guarded

vault area at the Institute. Their

necks had been broken and the backs

of the skulls caved in -- in each case

apparently by a single violent

blow. The bodies showed bruises but

no other significant damage."

She said after a moment, "Did the

Institute find out anything?"

"Yes. The investigators assumed at

first a temporary portal had been

set up secretly to the vault. But

there should have been residual

portal energy detectable, and there

wasn't. They did establish then

that a life form of unknown type

had been present at the time of the

killings. Estimated body weight

close to ten hundred pounds."

Telzey nodded. "That was one of

Bozo's relatives, all right!"

"We can assume it. The vault area

was psi-blocked. So that's no

obstacle to them. The Phons are

badly frightened. Political

assassinations are no novelty at

the Institute, but here all

factions lost leading members.

Nobody feels safe. They don't know

the source of the threat or the

reason for it, but they've decided

psi may have been involved. Within

limits, they're willing to

cooperate with the Service."

He added, "As it happens, we'd

already been giving Tinokti special

attention. It's one of perhaps a

dozen Hub worlds where a secret psi

organization would find almost

ideal conditions. Since they've

demonstrated an interest in psi

machines, the Institute's intensive

work in the area should be a

further attraction. Mind shields or

not, it wouldn't be surprising to

discover the psis have been

following that project for some

time. So the Service will move to

Tinokti in strength. If we can trap

a sizable nest, it might be a long

step toward rounding up the lot

wherever they're hiding."

He regarded Telzey a moment.

"Because of its nature," he

remarked, "this isn't technically

even a classified operation. It's

one that has no official existence.

It isn't happening. After it's over

with, it won't have happened."

Telzey said, "You've told me

because you want me to go to

Tinokti?"

"Yes. We should be able to make

very good use of you. The fact that

you're sensitized to the psis' mind

type gives you an advantage over

our operators. And your sudden

interest in Tinokti after what's

occurred might stimulate some

reaction from the local group."

"I'll be bait?" Telzey said.

"In part. Our moment to moment

tactics will depend on

developments, of course."

She nodded. "Well, I'm bait here,

and I want them off my neck. What

will the arrangement be?"

"You're making the arrangement,"

Klayung told her. "A psi

arrangement, to keep you in

character -- the junior Service

operator who's maintaining her

well-established cover as a law

student. You'll have Pehanron

assign you to a field trip to

Tinokti to do a paper on the

legalistic aspects of the Tongi

Phon government."

"It'll have to be cleared with the

Institute," Telzey said.

"We'll take care of that."

"All right." She considered. "I may

have to work on three or four

minds. When do I leave?"

"A week from today."

Telzey nodded. "That's no problem

then. There's one, thing...."

"Yes?"

"The psis have been so careful not

to give themselves away here. Why

should they create an obvious

mystery on Tinokti?"

Klayung said, "I'm wondering. There

may be something the Phons haven't

told us. However, the supposition

at present is that the beast failed

to follow its instructions

exactly -- as the creatures may, in

fact, have done on other occasions

with less revealing results. You

had the impression that Bozo wasn't

too intelligent."

"Yes, I did," Telzey said. "But it

doesn't seem very intelligent

either to use an animal like that

where something could go seriously

wrong, as it certainly might in a

place like the Institute.

Particularly when they still

haven't found out what happened to

their other psi beast on Orado."

* * *

What were they?

Telzey had fed questions to

information centers. Reports about

psi mutant strains weren't

uncommon, but one had to go a long

way back to find something like

confirming evidence. She condensed

the information she obtained, gave

it, combined with her own recent

experiences, to Pehanron's

probability computer to digest. The

machine stated that she was dealing

with descendants of the historical

mind masters of Nalakia, the

Elaigar.

She mentioned it to Klayung. He

wasn't surprised. The Service's

probability computers concurred.

"But that's impossible!" Telzey

said, startled. The information

centers had provided her with a

great deal of material on the

Elaigar. "If the records are right,

they averaged out at more than five

hundred pounds. Besides, they

looked like ogres! How could

someone like that be moving around

in a Hub city without being

noticed?"

Klayung said they wouldn't

necessarily have to let themselves

be seen, at least not by people who

could talk about them. If they'd

returned to the Hub from some other

galactic section, they might have

set up bases on unused nonoxygen

worlds a few hours from their

points of operation, almost safe

from detection so long as their

presence wasn't suspected. He

wasn't discounting the possibility.

Telzey, going over the material

again later, found that she didn't

much care for the possibility. The

Elaigar belonged to the Hub's early

colonial period. They'd been

physical giants with psi minds, a

biostructure believed to be of

human origin, developed by a

science-based cult called the

Grisands, which had moved out from

the Old Territory not long before

and established itself in a

stronghold on Nalakia. In the

Grisand idiom, Elaigar meant the

Lion People. It suggested what the

Grisands intended to achieve -- a

controlled formidable strain

through which they could dominate

the other humans on Nalakia and on

neighboring colony worlds. But they

lost command of their creation. The

Elaigar turned on them, and the

Grisands died in the ruins of their

stronghold. Then the Elaigar set

out on conquests of their own.

Apparently they'd been the terrors

of that area of space for a number

of years, taking over one colony

after another. The humans they met

and didn't kill were mentally

enslaved and thereafter lived to

serve them. Eventually, war fleets

were assembled in other parts of

the Hub; and the prowess of the

Elaigar proved to be no match for

superior space firepower. The

survivors among them fled in ships

crewed by their slaves and hadn't

been heard from again.

Visual reproductions of a few of

the slain mutants were included in

the data Telzey had gathered. There

hadn't been many available. The

Hub's War Centuries lay between

that time and her own; most of the

colonial period's records had been

destroyed or lost. Even dead and

seen in the faded recordings, the

Elaigar appeared as alarming as

their reputation had been. There

were a variety of giant strains in

the Hub, but most of them looked

reasonably human. The Elaigar

seemed a different species. The

massive bodies were like those of

powerful animals, and the broad

hairless faces brought to mind the

faces of great cats.

But human the prototype must have

been, Telzey thought -- if it was

Elaigar she'd met briefly on the

psi level in Orado's Melna Park.

The basic human mental patterns

were discernible in the thought

forms she'd registered. What was

different might fit these images of

the Nalakian mind masters and their

brief, bloody Hub history. Klayung

could be right.

"Well, just be sure," Jessamine

Amberdon commented when Telzey

informed her parents by ComWeb one

evening that she'd be off on a

field assignment to Tinokti next

day, "that you're back ten days

from now."

"Why?" asked Telzey.

"For the celebration, of course."

"Eh?"

Jessamine sighed. "Oh, Telzey!

You've become the most

absent-minded dear lately! That's

your birthday, remember? You'll be

sixteen."

Chapter 3

Citizens of Tinokti tended to

regard the megacities of other

Federation worlds as overgrown

primitive villages. They, or some

seventy percent of them, lived and

worked in the enclosed portal

systems called circuits. For most

it was a comfortable existence; for

many a luxurious one.

A portal, for practical purposes,

was two points in space clamped

together to form one. It was a

method of moving in a step from

here to there, within a limited but

considerable range. Portal circuits

could be found on many Hub worlds.

On Tinokti they were everywhere.

Varying widely in extent and

complexity, serving many purposes,

they formed the framework of the

planet's culture.

On disembarking at the spaceport,

Telzey had checked in at a great

commercial circuit called the

Luerral Hotel. It had been selected

for her because it was free of the

psi blocks in rather general use

here otherwise. The Luerral catered

to the interstellar trade; and the

force patterns which created the

blocks were likely to give people

unaccustomed to them a mildly

oppressive feeling of being

enclosed. For Telzey's purpose, of

course, they were more serious

obstacles.

While registering, she was equipped

with a guest key. The Luerral Hotel

was exclusive; its portals passed

only those who carried a Luerral

key or were in the immediate

company of somebody who did. The

keys were accessories of the

Luerral's central computer and on

request gave verbal directions and

other information. The one Telzey

selected had the form of a slender

ring. She let it guide her to her

room, found her luggage had

preceded her there, and made a call

to the Tongi Phon Institute.

Tinokti ran on Institute time; the

official workday wouldn't begin for

another three hours. But she was

connected with someone who knew of

her application to do legal

research, and was told a guide

would come to take her to the

Institute when it opened.

She set out then on a stroll about

the hotel and circled Tinokti twice

in an hour's unhurried walk,

passing through portals which might

open on shopping malls, tropical

parks or snowy mountain resorts, as

the circuit dipped in and out of

the more attractive parts of the

planet. She was already at work for

Klayung, playing the role of a psi

operator who was playing the role

of an innocent student tourist. She

wore a tracer which pinpointed her

for a net of spacecraft deployed

about the planet. The bracelet on

her left wrist was a Service

communicator; and she was in wispy

but uninterrupted mind contact with

a Service telepath whose specialty

it was to keep such contacts

undetectable for other minds. She

also had armed company

unobtrusively preceding and

following her. They were probing

Tinokti carefully in many ways; she

was now one of the probes.

Her thoughts searched through each

circuit section and the open areas

surrounding it as she moved along.

She picked up no conscious

impressions of the Service's

quarry. But twice during that

hour's walk, the screens enclosing

her mind like a flexing bubble

tightened abruptly into a solid

shield. Her automatic detectors,

more sensitive than conscious

probes, had responded to a passing

touch of the type of mental

patterns they'd been designed to

warn her against. The psis were

here -- and evidently less cautious

than they'd been on Orado after her

first encounter with them.

* * *

When she'd come back to the hotel's

Great Lobby, Gudast, her Service

contact, inquired mentally, "Mind

doing a little more walking?"

Telzey checked her watch. "Just so

I'm not late for the Phons."

"We'll get you back in time."

"All right. Where do I go?"

Gudast said, "Those mind touches

you reported came at points where

the Luerral Hotel passes through

major city complexes. We'd like you

to go back to them, leave the

circuit and see if you can pick up

something outside."

She got short-cut directions from

the Luerral computer, set out

again. The larger sections had

assorted transportation aids, but,

on the whole, circuit dwellers

seemed to do a healthy amount of

walking. Almost all of the traffic

she saw was pedestrian.

She took an exit presently, found

herself in one of the city

complexes mentioned by Gudast. Her

Luerral ring key informed her the

hotel had turned her over to the

guidance of an area computer and

that the key remained at her

service if she needed information.

Directed by Gudast, she took a seat

on a slideway, let it carry her

along a main street. Superficially,

the appearance of things here was

not unlike that of some large city

on Orado. The differences were

functional. Psi blocks were all

about, sensed as a gradually

shifting pattern of barriers to

probes as the slideway moved on

with her. Probably less than a

fifth of the space of the great

buildings was locally open;

everything else was taken up by

circuit sections connected to other

points of the planet, ranging in

size from a few residential or

storage rooms to several building

levels. Milkily gleaming horizontal

streaks along the sides of the

buildings showed that many of the

sections were protected by force

fields. Tinokti's citizens placed a

high value on privacy.

Telzey stiffened suddenly. "Defense

reaction!" she told Gudast.

"Caught it," his thought whispered.

"It's continuing." She passed her

tongue over her lips.

"See a good place to get off the

slideway?"

Telzey glanced along the street,

stood up. "Yes! Big display windows

just ahead. Quite a few people."

"Sounds right."

She stepped off the slideway as it

came up to the window fronts,

walked over, started along the

gleaming windows, then stopped,

looking in at the displayed

merchandise. "I'm there," she told

Gudast. "Reaction stopped a moment

ago."

"See what you can do. We're set

up."

Her psi sensors reached out. She

brought up the thought patterns

she'd recorded in Melna Park and

stored in memory, blurred them,

projected them briefly as something

carelessly let slip from an

otherwise guarded mind. She waited.

Her screens tried to tighten again.

She kept them as they were,

overriding the automatic reaction.

Then something moved faintly into

awareness -- a mind behind shielding,

alert, questioning, perhaps

suspicious. Still barely

discernible.

"Easy -- easy!" whispered Gudast.

"I'm getting it. We're getting it.

Don't push at all! Give us fifteen

seconds... ten..."

Psi-block!

The impression had vanished.

Somewhere the being producing it

had moved into a psi-blocked

section of this city complex.

Perhaps deliberately, choosing

mental concealment. Perhaps simply

because that was where it happened

to be going when its attention was

caught for a moment by Telzey's

broadcast pattern. The impression

hadn't been sufficiently strong to

say anything about it except that

this had been a mind of the type

Telzey had encountered on Orado.

They'd all caught for an instant

the specific qualities she'd

recorded.

The instant hadn't been enough.

Klayung had brought a number of

living psi compasses to Tinokti

operators who could have pinpointed

the position of the body housing

that elusive mentality, given a few

more seconds in which to work.

They hadn't been given those

seconds, and the mentality wasn't

contacted again. Telzey went on

presently to the other place where

she'd sensed a sudden warning, and

prowled about here and there

outside the Luerral Circuit, while

Klayung's pack waited for renewed

indications. This time they drew a

blank.

But it had been confirmed that the

psis -- some of them -- were on

Tinokti.

The problem would be how to dig

them out of the planet-wide maze of

force-screened and psi-blocked

circuit sections.

* * *

Telzey's Institute guide, a young

man named Phon Hajugan, appeared

punctually with the beginning of

Tinokti's workday. He informed

Telzey he held the lowest Tongi

Phon rank. The lower echelons

evidently hadn't been informed of

the recent killings in the

Institute vault and their

superiors' apprehensions -- Phon

Hajugan was in a cheery and

talkative mood. Telzey's probe

disclosed that he was equipped with

a chemical mind shield.

There was no portal connection

between the Luerral Hotel's circuit

and that of the Institute. Telzey

and her guide walked along a block

of what appeared to be a sizable

residential town before reaching an

entry portal of the Tongi Phon

Circuit, where she was provided

with another portal key. She'd been

making note of the route; in future

she didn't intend to be distracted

by the presence of a guide. The

office to which Phon Hajugan

conducted her was that of a senior

Phon named Trondbarg. It was clear

that Phon Trondbarg did know what

was going on. He discussed Telzey's

Pehanron project in polite detail

but with an air of nervous

detachment. It had been indicated

to the Institute that she was a

special agent of the Service, and

that her research here was for

form's sake only.

The interview didn't take long. Her

credentials would be processed, and

she was to return in four hours.

She would have access then to

normally restricted materials and

be able to obtain other information

as required. In effect, she was

being given a nearly free run of

the Institute, which was the

purpose. Unless there were other

developments, much of the Service's

immediate attention would be

focused on the areas and personnel

associated with the Tongi Phon's

psi technology projects. The Phon

leadership didn't like it but had

no choice. They would have liked it

less if they'd suspected that mind

shields now would start coming

quietly undone. The Service wanted

to find out who around here was

controlled and in what manner.

Some form of counteraction by the

concealed opposition might be

expected. Preparations were being

made for it, and Telzey's personal

warning system was one part of the

preparations.

She returned to the Luerral Circuit

and her hotel room alone except for

her unnoticeable Service escorts,

spent the next two hours asleep to

get herself shifted over to the

local time system, then dressed in

a Tinokti fashion item, a sky-blue

belted jacket of military cut and

matching skirt, and had a belated

breakfast in a stratosphere

restaurant of the hotel. Back in

the Great Lobby, she began to

retrace the route to the Tongi Phon

Institute she'd followed with Phon

Hajugan some five hours ago. A

series of drop shafts took her to a

scenic link with swift-moving

slideways; then there was a

three-portal shift to the southern

hemisphere where the Institute's

major structures were located. She

moved on through changing patterns

of human traffic until she reached

the ninth portal from the Great

Lobby. On the far side of that

portal, she stopped with a catch in

her breath, spun about, found

herself looking at a blank wall,

and turned again.

Her mental contact with Gudast was

gone. The portal had shifted her

into a big, long, high-ceilinged

room, empty and silent. She hadn't

passed through any such room with

Phon Hajugan. She should have

exited here instead into the main

passage of a shopping center.

She touched the wall through which

she'd stepped an instant ago -- as

solid now as it looked. A one-way

portal. The room held the peculiar

air of blankness, a cave of

stillness about the mind, which

said it was psi-blocked and that

the blocking fields were close by.

Watching a large closed door at the

other end of the room, Telzey

clicked on the bracelet

communicator. No response from the

Service.... No response either, a

moment later, from the Luerral ring

key!

She'd heard that in the

complexities of major portal

systems, it could happen that a

shift became temporarily distorted

and one emerged somewhere else than

one had intended to go. But that

hadn't happened here. There'd been

people directly ahead of her,

others not many yards behind, her

Service escorts among them, and no

one else had portaled into this big

room which was no part of the

Luerral Circuit.

So it must be a trap -- and a trap

set up specifically for her along

her route from the hotel room to

the Tongi Phon Institute. As she

reached the portal some observer

had tripped the mechanisms which

flicked in another exit for the

instant needed to bring her to the

room. If the Service still had a

fix on the tracking device they'd

given her, they would have

recognized what had happened and be

zeroing in on her now, but she had

an unpleasantly strong conviction

that whoever had cut her off so

effectively from psi and

communicator contacts also had

considered the possibility of a

tracking device and made sure it

wouldn't act as one here.

The room remained quiet. A strip of

window just below the ceiling ran

along the wall on her left, showing

patches of blue sky and tree

greenery outside. It was far out of

her reach, and if she found

something that let her climb up to

it, there was no reason to think it

would be possible to get through

that window. But she started

cautiously forward. The room was

L-shaped; on her right, the wall

extended not much more than two

thirds of its length before it

cornered.

She could sense nothing but wasn't

sure no one was waiting behind the

corner for her until she got there.

No one was. That part of the room

was as bare as the other. At the

end of it was a second closed door,

a smaller one.

She turned back toward the first

door, checked, skin crawling. Mind

screens had contracted abruptly

into a hard shield. One of

had come into this psi-blocked

structure.

One or more of them....

The larger door opened seconds

later. Three tall people came into

the room.

Chapter 4

Telzey's continuing automatic

reaction told her the three were

psis of the type she'd conditioned

herself to detect and recognize.

Whatever they were, they had

nothing resembling the bulk and

massive structure of the Elaigar

mind masters she'd studied in the

old Nalakian records. They might be

nearly as tall. The smallest, in

the rich blue cloak and hood of a

Sparan woman, must measure at least

seven feet, and came barely up to

the shoulders of her companions who

wore the corresponding gray cloaks

of Sparan men. Veils, golden for

the woman, white for the men,

concealed their faces below the

eyes and fell to their chests.

But, of course, they weren't

Sparans. Telzey had looked into

Sparan minds. They probably were

the Hub's most widespread giant

strain, should have the average

sprinkling of psi ability. They

weren't an organization of psis.

Their familiar standardized

dressing practices simply provided

these three with an effective form

of concealment.

Telzey, heart racing, smiled at

them.

"I hope I'm not trespassing!" she

told them. "I was in the Luerral

Hotel just a minute ago and have no

idea how I got here! Can you tell

me how to get back?"

The woman said in an impersonal

voice, "I'm sure you're quite aware

you're not here by accident. We'll

take you presently to some people

who want to see you. Now stand

still while I search you."

She'd come up as she spoke,

removing her golden gloves. Telzey

stood still. The men had turned to

the left along the wall, and a

recess was suddenly in sight

there... some portal arrangement.

The recess seemed to be a large,

half-filled storage closet. The men

began bringing items out of it,

while the woman searched Telzey

quickly. The communicator and the

Service's tracking device

disappeared under the blue cloak.

The woman took nothing else. She

straightened again, said, "Stay

where you are," and turned to join

her companions who now were packing

selected pieces of equipment into

two carrier cases they'd taken from

the closet. They worked

methodically but with some haste,

occasionally exchanging a few words

in a language Telzey didn't know.

Finally they snapped the cases

shut, began to remove their Sparan

veils and cloaks.

Telzey watched them warily. Her

first sight of their faces was

jarring. They were strong handsome

faces with a breed similarity

between them. But there was more

than a suggestion there of the

cruel cat masks of Nalakia. They'd

needed the cover of the Sparan veil

to avoid drawing attention to

themselves.

The bodies were as distinctive. The

woman, now in trunks, boots and

short-sleeved shirt, as were the

men, a gun belt fastened about her,

looked slender with her height and

length of limb, but layers of

well-defined muscle shifted along

her arms and legs as she moved. Her

neck was a round strong column, the

sloping shoulders correspondingly

heavy, and there was a great depth

of rib cage, drawing in sharply to

the flat waist. She differed from

the human standard as a strain of

animals bred for speed or fighting

might differ from other strains of

the same species. Her companions

were male counterparts, larger,

more heavily muscled.

There'd been no trace of a mental

or emotional impression from any of

them; they were closely screened.

The door at the end of the room

opened now, and a third man of the

same type came in. He was dressed

almost as the others were, but

everything he wore was dark green;

and instead of a gun, a broad knife

swung in its scabbard from his

belt. He glanced at Telzey, said

something in their language. The

woman looked over at Telzey.

"Who are you?" Telzey asked her.

The woman said, "My name is Kolki

Ming. I'm afraid there's no time

for questions. We have work to do."

She indicated the third man.

"Tscharen will be in charge of you

at present."

"We'll leave now," Tscharen told

Telzey.

* * *

They were in a portal circuit. Once

out of the room where Telzey had

been trapped, they used no more

doors. The portal sections through

which they passed were small ones,

dingy by contrast with the

Luerral's luxuries, windowless

interiors where people once had

lived. Lighting and other automatic

equipment still functioned;

furnishings stood about. But there

was a general air of long disuse.

Psi blocks tangibly enclosed each

section.

The portals weren't marked in any

way, but Tscharen moved on without

hesitation. They'd reach a wall and

the wall would seem to dissolve

about and before them; and they'd

be through it, somewhere else -- a

somewhere else which didn't look

very different from the section

they'd just left. After the sixth

portal shift, Tscharen turned into

a room and unlocked and opened a

wall cabinet.

A viewscreen had been installed in

the cabinet. He manipulated the

settings, and a brightly lit and

richly furnished area, which might

have been the reception room of

some great house, appeared in the

screen. There was no one in sight;

the screen was silent. Tscharen

studied the room for perhaps a

minute, then switched off the

screen, closed and locked the

cabinet, motioned to Telzey and

turned to leave. She followed.

They passed through two more

portals. The second one took them

into the big room of the

viewscreen. They'd moved on a few

steps across thick carpeting when

Tscharen whirled abruptly. Telzey

had a glimpse of a gun in his hand,

saw him drop sideways. Someone

landed with a harsh yell on the

floor behind her, and a great hand

gripped the back of her jacket

below the collar. For a moment, a

face stared down into hers. Then

she was tossed aside with careless

violence, and when she looked up

from the carpeting, the giants were

coming in through a doorspace at

the far end of the room.

They moved like swift animals. She

had barely time to scramble to her

feet before they were there. One of

them caught her arm, held her in a

rock-hard grip, but the immediate

attention of the group was on

Tscharen. They crouched about him,

shifting quickly back and forth.

He'd recovered from whatever had

knocked him out, was struggling

violently. There were short angry

shouts. Gusts of savage emotion

boiled up, a battering of psi

energies. Telzey's gaze flicked to

the wall through which they'd

stepped. Grips were fastened to it

above the point where the portal

had opened briefly. That was where

Tscharen's attacker had clung,

waiting. So these others had known

he was coming along that route, or

that someone was coming, and had

laid an ambush.

The psi tumult ebbed out. They

began to separate, get to their

feet. She saw Tscharen lying face

down, hands fastened behind his

back, trussed up generally and

motionless. Two remained beside

him. The others turned toward

Telzey, spreading out in a

semicircle.

She swallowed carefully. More than

a dozen stared at her, faces

showing little expression at the

moment. They were dressed in the

same sort of dark green outfit as

Tscharen, belted with guns and

knives. The majority were of his

type. Two of them, slighter,

smaller-boned, were females.

But four in the group were not at

all of the same type. They stood

not many inches taller than the

rest but were much more hugely

designed throughout. They were, in

fact, unmistakably what the old

records had told about and

shown -- the psi ogres of Nalakia,

the Elaigar.

One of these rumbled something to

the lesser giant holding Telzey's

arm. Thought patterns flickered for

a moment through her awareness. She

had the impression they didn't

quite know what to make of the fact

that she'd been in Tscharen's

company.

She glanced toward the ogre who'd

spoken. His brooding eyes narrowed.

A mind probe stabbed at her.

Her shield blocked it.

Interest flared in the broad face.

The others stirred, went quiet

again.

So now they knew she was a psi.

Another probe came from the

Elaigar, heavy and hard, testing

the shield in earnest. It held.

Some of the others began to grin.

He grunted, in annoyance now,

returned with a ramming thrust.

Telzey slammed a bolt back at him,

struck heavy shielding; and his

eyes went wide with surprise. There

was a roar of laughter. As psi

mentalities, the great Elaigar

seemed the same as Tscharen's kind;

she could make out no difference

between them.

The noise ended abruptly. Faces

turned toward the doorspace and the

group shifted position, hands

moving toward guns and knife hilts.

Telzey followed their gaze. Hot

fright jolted through her.

An animal stood in the room thirty

feet away, small red eyes fixed on

her. Thick-bodied, with massive

head and forelimbs -- one of their

teleporting killers. It didn't

move, but its appearance and stare

were infinitely menacing. The

giants themselves clearly weren't

at ease in its presence.

It vanished.

Simultaneously, a voice spoke

harshly from the doorway and

another huge Elaigar strode into

the room, followed by a humanoid

creature in green uniform. It was a

moment before Telzey realized the

newcomer was female. There was

little to distinguish her

physically from the males of her

type here. But something did

distinguish her -- something like a

blaze of furious energy which

enlivened the brutal features in

their frame of shaggy black hair.

Through her shield, Telzey felt a

powerful mind sweep toward her,

then abruptly withdraw. The

giantess glanced at her as she

approached, said something to the

attendant humanoid, then turned

toward Tscharen and addressed the

others in a hard deep voice. The

attitude of the group indicated she

held authority among them.

The humanoid stopped before Telzey,

took an instrument from one of his

uniform pockets, thumbed open the

cover, held the instrument to his

mouth, pronounced a few

high-pitched sentences, closed the

device and replaced it. He looked

up at the giant holding Telzey by

the arm, and the giant growled a

few words and moved off. The

humanoid looked at Telzey. She

looked at him.

Except for the fact that he wasn't

much taller than she, his

appearance was no more reassuring

than that of the giants. The large

round head and the hands were

covered by skin like plum-colored

velvet. The two eyes set wide apart

in the head were white circles with

black dots as pupils. There were no

indications of ears, nostrils, or

other sense organs. The mouth was a

long straight lipless line. A

variety of weapons and less readily

definable devices were attached to

the broad belt about the flat body.

The creature unclipped two of the

belt gadgets now, stepped up to

Telzey and began running them over

her clothes. She realized she was

being searched again and stood

still. Plum-face was methodical and

thorough. Everything he found he

looked over briefly and stuffed

into one of his pockets, winding up

by pulling the Luerral ring key

from Telzey's finger and adding it

to the other items. Then he

returned the search devices to his

belt and spoke to somebody who was

now standing behind Telzey. The

somebody moved around into view.

Another kind of alien. This one was

also about Telzey's size, wore

clothing, walked upright on two

legs. Any physical resemblance to

humanity ended there. It had a head

like that of a soft-shelled green

bug, jaws hinged side to side. A

curved band of yellow circles

across the upper part of the face

seemed to be eyes. What was visible

of arms and legs, ending in the

bony hands and narrow, shod feet,

was reedy and knob-jointed, the

same shade of green as the head.

This creature didn't look at Telzey

but simply stood there. Telzey

guessed Plum-face had summoned it

to the room with his communicator.

Two of the group had picked up

Tscharen now and were carrying him

from the room. The giantess snapped

out some command. The rest started

toward the doorspace. She watched

them leave, then turned abruptly.

Telzey felt a thrill of alarm as

the monster came up. The Elaigar

spoke, a few short words.

The green alien at once told Telzey

softly, in perfect translingue,

"You are in the presence of

Stiltik, who is a High Commander of

the Elaigar. I'm to translate her

instructions to you -- and I advise

you most urgently to do whatever

she says, with no hesitation."

The jaws hadn't moved, but a short

tube protruded from the front of

the stalklike neck. The voice had

come from there. The end of the

tube was split, forming flexible

lips with a fleshy blue tongue tip

between them.

The harsh voice of Stiltik, High

Commander of the Elaigar, broke in.

The green alien resumed quickly.

"You must open your mind to

Stiltik. Do it immediately!"

But that was the last thing she

should do. Telzey said unsteadily,

"Open my mind? I don't know what

she means."

Bug-face translated. Stiltik, eyes

fixed hard on Telzey, growled a

brief response. The green creature,

seeming almost in distress, said,

"Stiltik says you're lying. Please

don't defy her! She's very quick to

anger."

Telzey shook her head helplessly.

"But it's impossible! I--"

She broke off. This time, Stiltik

hadn't waited for translation. Psi

pressure clamped about Telzey's

shield, tightened like a great

fist. She gave a startled gasp.

There was no need to pretend being

frightened; she was afraid enough

of Stiltik. But not of this form of

attack. Her shield had stood up

under the crushing onslaught of a

great psi machine. As far as she

knew, no living mind could produce

similar forces.

And in not too many seconds,

Stiltik appeared to understand she

would accomplish nothing in that

manner. The pressure ended

abruptly. She stared down at

Telzey, made a snorting sound,

leaned forward. The mouth smiled in

murderous anger; and the huge hands

reached out with blurring speed,

gripped Telzey, went knowingly to

work.

Telzey was reminded in an instant

then that when pain is excruciating

enough there is no outcry, because

lungs and throat seem paralyzed.

She could have blocked out most of

it, but Stiltik might be in a

killing fury, and pain now offered

a means of escape. It flowed

through her like bursts of fire

leaping up and combining. Her mind

dimmed in shock, and she found

herself lying on the floor,

shaking, shield tight-locked.

Stiltik roared out something high

above her. Then there were

footsteps, moving off. Then

darkness, rolling in.

Chapter 5

She decided presently that she

hadn't been unconscious very long,

though she hurt a great deal less

than she'd expected to be hurting

when she woke up. She kept her eyes

shut; she wasn't alone. She was

lying on her side, with something

like a hard cot underneath. The

area was psi-blocked, and evidently

it was a large structure because

she had no feeling of blocking

fields close by. Her warning

mechanisms indicated one or more

minds of the Elaigar type around.

Something touched her lightly in an

area which was still sufficiently

painful. Around the touch pain

began to diminish, as if a slow

wave of coolness were spreading out

and absorbing it. So she was being

treated for the mauling she'd had

from Stiltik -- very effectively

treated, to judge by the way she

felt.

Now to determine who was in the

vicinity.

Telzey canceled the alerting

mechanisms, lightened her

shielding, reached out cautiously.

After a minute or two, vague

thought configurations touched her

awareness. Nonpsi and alien they

were -- she could develop that

contact readily.

Next, sense of a psi shield.

Whoever used it wasn't far away....

The device which had been draining

pain from her withdrew, leaving a

barely noticeable residual

discomfort where it had been. It

touched another sore spot, resumed

its ministrations. A mingling of

the alien thoughts accompanied the

transfer. They were beginning to

seem comprehensible -- a language

half understood. The xenotelepathic

quality of her mind was at work.

Her screens abruptly drew tight.

There'd been a momentary wash of

Elaigar thought. Gone now. But--

Fury swirled about her, surging

from a telepathic mind which seemed

completely unshielded, nakedly

open. An Elaigar mind. The rage,

whatever caused it, had nothing to

do with Telzey. The giant didn't

appear aware that she was in the

area.

The impression faded again, didn't

return. Telzey waited a minute,

slid a light probe toward the psi

shield she'd touched. She picked up

no indication of anything there. It

was a good tight shield, and that

was all. Psi shield installed over

a nonpsi mind? It should be that.

She left a watch thought there, a

trace of awareness. If the shield

opened or softened, she'd know, be

back for a further look. She

returned to the alien nonpsi

thought patterns. By now, it was

obvious that they were being

produced by two minds of the same

species.

It was a gentle, unsuspicious

species. Telzey moved easily into

both minds. One was Stiltik's

green-bug interpreter, named Couse;

a female. Couse's race called

themselves the Tanvens. Her

companion was Sasar, male; a

physician. Kind Bug-faces! They had

problems enough of their own, no

happy future ahead. But at the

moment, they were feeling sorry for

the human who had been mishandled

by Stiltik and were doing what they

could to help her.

They might help more than they

realized. Telzey put taps on their

memory banks which would feed

general information to hers without

further attention, began dropping

specific questions into the

nonresisting awarenesses.

Responses came automatically.

After she lost consciousness, she'd

been brought here by Essu. Essu was

Plum-face, the uniformed humanoid.

He was a Tolant, chief of Stiltik's

company of Tolants. Stiltik had

ordered Couse to summon Sasar, the

most skilled physician in her

command, to tend to the human's

injuries and revive her. She was a

valuable captive who was to remain

in Essu's charge then, until

Stiltik sent for her. The Tanvens

didn't know when that would be. But

it might be a considerable while,

because Stiltik was interrogating

the other captive now.

Essu was waiting in the passage

outside this room. So he was the

wearer of the psi shield, though

the Tanvens knew nothing of that.

Stiltik presumably had equipped him

with one to safeguard her secrets

from other psi minds. Essu acted as

her general assistant, frequently

as her executioner and torturer. A

cruel, cunning creature! The

Tanvens feared him almost as much

as they feared Stiltik.

They didn't know there was an

Elaigar in the vicinity. As far as

they were aware, they were alone in

this circuit section with Essu and

Telzey. It had been a hospital

facility once, but was now rarely

used. The bad-tempered giant might

be a good distance away from them.

* * *

Telzey shifted her line of

questioning. The Elaigar had

enslaved members of many races

besides Tanvens and Tolants. Giants

of Stiltik's kind were called

Sattarams and supplied almost all

the leaders. The lesser Elaigar

were Otessans. Tscharen belonged to

a third variety called Alattas, who

looked like Otessans and now and

then were caught masquerading as

them, as Tscharen had been. The

Alattas were enemies of the

Sattarams and Otessans, and Couse

and Sasar had heard rumors that an

Alatta force was at present trying

to invade the circuit.

At that point, Telzey drew back

from the Tanven minds, leaving only

the memory taps in place. For

immediate practical purposes, Couse

and Sasar had a limited usefulness.

They were unable to think about the

Elaigar in any real detail. When

she tried to pin them down, their

thought simply blurred. They knew

only as much about their masters as

they needed to know to perform

their duties.

Similarly, they had a frustratingly

vague picture of the portal circuit

the Elaigar had occupied on

Tinokti. It appeared to be an

extensive system. They were

familiar with a limited part of it

and had been supplied with key

packs which permitted them to move

about within that area. They had no

curiosity about what lay beyond. In

particular, they'd never wondered

about the location of exits from

the circuit to the world outside.

Escape was something they didn't

think about; it was a meaningless

concept. The Elaigar had done a

thorough job of conditioning them.

She could control the Tanvens

easily, but it wouldn't gain her

anything.

Plum-face was the logical one to

get under control. He was in charge

of her, and the fact that he was

Stiltik's assistant could make him

the most useful sort of

confederate. However, the psi

shield presented a problem. Telzey

thought she could work through it,

given time enough. But Stiltik

might show up and discover what she

was doing. Stiltik would make very

sure then that she didn't get a

chance to try other tricks.

She decided to wait a little with

Essu. The shield might be less

inflexible than it seemed at

present. Meanwhile, there was a

fourth mind around. The Elaigar

mind.

* * *

She considered, not liking that

notion too well. There'd been

occasional impressions which

indicated this particular Elaigar

remained careless about his

shielding. He didn't seem to be

aware of any of them here. But if

he suspected he was being probed,

he'd start hunting around the

limited psi-blocked area for the

prober.

She thought finally she should take

the chance -- he was preoccupied and

angry.

She reached out gradually toward

the Elaigar awareness. Her concern

lessened then. There was a screen

there but so loosely held it might

as well have been nonexistent. The

thought currents behind it shifted

in fluctuating disorder over a

quivering undercurrent of anger.

Insane, she realized. A sick old

male sunk deep in derangement,

staring at problems for which there

was no real solution, rousing

himself periodically to futile

fury.

Telzey eased in a memory tap,

paused--

She slipped out of the

Elaigar mind, flicked her watch

thought away from Essu's shield.

Tight went her own shield then.

Stiltik was present, after a

fashion. Somewhere in this

psi-blocked structure, a portal had

opened and she'd stepped through. A

signal now touched Essu's shield,

and the shield went soft. Not many

seconds later, it hardened again.

Some instruction had been given the

Tolant.

But Stiltik wasn't yet gone. Telzey

sensed a search thought about. She

could hide from it by ceasing all

psi activity, but that simply would

tell Stiltik she was conscious. She

allowed a normal trickle of psi

energy to drift out, let Stiltik's

mind find her behind her shield.

Something touched the shield,

tested it with a slow pressure

probe, which got nowhere, withdrew.

A hard, dizzying bolt slammed

suddenly at her then; another. That

sort of thing shouldn't help an

unconscious patient make a faster

recovery, Telzey thought. Perhaps

Stiltik had the same reflection;

she let it go at that. When Telzey

made a cautious scan of the area a

minute or two later, there was no

trace of the giantess in the

structure.

* * *

Essu appeared in the entrance to

the room and wanted to know how

much longer it was going to take

Sasar to get the human awake and in

good enough shape so she could

walk. Telzey followed the talk

through Couse's mind. Couse was

acting as interpreter again. Essu

didn't understand the Tanven

tongue, nor Sasar that of the

Tolants or Elaigar. The physician

was alarmed by Essu's indications

of impatience, but replied bravely

enough. Couse had given him

Stiltik's instructions: he was to

make sure the patient retained no

dangerous injuries before he

released her to Essu, and he

couldn't be sure of it yet. She

appeared to be healing well and

rapidly, but her continuing

unconsciousness was not a good

sign. Essu pronounced a few

imprecations in his high sharp

voice, resumed his post in the

passage.

The signal which caused Essu's

shield to relax presently reached

it again. Essu wasn't aware of it,

but the shield softened in

mechanical obedience. This time, it

was Telzey's probe which slipped

through. She'd reproduced the

signal as carefully as she could,

but hadn't been too sure it was an

exact copy. Evidently she'd come

close enough -- and now for some

quick and nervous work! If Stiltik

happened to return before she got

organized here, it wasn't likely

she could escape discovery.

That part of it then turned out to

be easier than she'd expected.

Essu's mind already was well

organized for her purpose. She

flicked through installed

telepathic channels to indicated

control points. By the time she'd

scanned the system, knew she

understood it, most of the Tolant's

concepts were becoming

comprehensible to her. She checked

on the immediately important point.

What was he to do with her after

she came awake and Sasar pronounced

her condition to be satisfactory?

Response came promptly. Essu would

take her to Stiltik's private

lockup, inform Stiltik of the fact,

and stay with Telzey until Stiltik

wanted her. The lockup was a small

sealed circuit section known only

to Stiltik and Essu. Stiltik

believed the human psi would be an

important catch. She didn't want

her enemies to hear about it until

she'd finished squeezing the truth

from the Alatta, and had searched

through Telzey's mind for

information she could turn to

political advantage. It appeared

Stiltik was engaged in a power

struggle with Boragost, the other

High Commander in the Elaigar

circuit.

Essu's shield hardened again until

it appeared solidly locked, though

a really close investigation would

have revealed that contact remained

now between his mind and Telzey's.

Telzey didn't want to break that

contact unless she had to. The

Tolant should turn out to be as

useful as she'd thought, and she

had to do a good deal of work on

him before he'd be ready for use --

which made it time to be restored

officially to consciousness and

health. Once Stiltik was informed

the prisoner was safely in the

lockup, she should be satisfied to

leave it to Essu to see Telzey

stayed there.

And that would be essential for a

while.

A thought whispered, "I know you're

planning to escape from the

Elaigar! Would you permit me to

accompany you?"

For an instant Telzey froze in

shock. That had been a human

thought. Otherwise there hadn't

been -- and still wasn't -- the

slightest indication of another

human being around. She flicked

back a question. "Where are you?"

"Not far away. I could be with you

in a minute."

Now she'd noticed something.

"You're human?" she asked.

"Of course. My name is Thrakell

Dees."

"It seems to me," Telzey remarked,

"there's something here that could

be part of the two Tanven minds

I've been in contact with -- or

perhaps a third Tanven mind. But if

you look closely, it's only the

impression of a Tanven mind."

Silence for a moment. "A projected

form of concealment," Thrakell

Dees's thought said then. "One of

the means I've developed to stay

alive in this cave of devils."

"How do you happen to be in the

circuit?"

"I was trapped here over six years

ago when the Elaigar suddenly

appeared. I've never found a way to

get out."

Telzey gave Essu's mind a

questioning prod. "You mean you

don't know where the exits to

Tinokti are?" she asked Thrakell

Dees.

"I have an approximate idea of

where they should be. However,

they're very securely guarded."

Yes, wild humans, Essu was

thinking. Quite a number of humans

had managed to hide out in the

circuit in the early period.

Hunting them had been good sport

for a while. There were occasional

indications that a few still

survived, skulking about in unused

sections.

"What happened to the other human

beings in the circuit?" Telzey

asked Thrakell Dees.

"The Elaigar and their serfs killed

most of them at once. I myself was

nearly caught often enough in those

days. Only my psi abilities saved

me. Later I learned other methods

of avoiding the creatures. The

circuit is very large, and only a

part of it is occupied by them."

"Is anyone left besides you?"

"No, I'm the last. A year ago I

encountered another survivor, but

he was killed soon afterwards. The

Elaigar have brought in captured

humans from time to time, but none

ever escaped and few lived long.

Today I learned from a serf mind

that Stiltik had trapped a human

psi. I began looking for you,

thinking I might be of help. But it

seems you have your own plans. I

suggest we cooperate. I can be very

useful."

"What do you know about my plans?"

Telzey asked.

"Nothing directly. Your thoughts

were too closely screened. But I've

been following the responses you

drew from the Tanvens. They

indicate you intend to attempt an

escape."

"All right," Telzey said. "I will

try to escape. If you want to come

along, fine. We should be able to

help each other. But keep out of

the way now, because I'll be busy.

The Tolant will be taking me

somewhere else soon. Can you follow

without letting him see you?"

"I'm rarely seen unless I want to

be." His reply seemed to hold a

momentary odd note of amusement. "I

can follow you easily in the

general circuit. I have keys for

some sealed areas, too. Not, of

course, for all of them."

"We'll be in a sealed area for a

while, but we'll come back out,"

Telzey told him. "Let's not talk

any more now. I'm going to wake

up."

* * *

She dissolved the memory taps in

the Tanven minds and that of the

old Elaigar, stirred about on the

cot, then opened her eyes, looked

up into Couse's green face and

glanced over at Sasar who had drawn

back a trifle when she began to

move.

"What's happened?" Telzey asked.

She looked at Couse again, blinked.

"You're the interpreter...."

"Yes, I am," said Couse.

Sasar said in the Tanven tongue,

"What is the human saying? Ask her

how she feels," the thoughts

carrying through the meaningless

sound. Essu, hearing the voices,

had appeared in the entrance again

and was watching the group.

Couse relayed the question, adding

that Sasar had been acting as

Telzey's physician after she had

been injured. Telzey shifted her

shoulders, twisted her neck,

touched herself cautiously.

"He's a very good physician!" she

told Couse. "I'm still aching a

little here and there, but that's

all."

Couse translated that twice, first

for Sasar, and then for Essu, who

had some understanding of

translingue but not enough to be

certain of what Telzey was saying.

"The human aches a little!" Essu

repeated. "It's awake and it can

walk, so it's healthy enough. Tell

your healer he's relieved of his

responsibility, and be on your way,

both of you!"

The Tanvens left quickly and

quietly. There was a belt of woven

metal fastened around Telzey's

waist, with a strap of the same

material attached to the belt. The

other end of the strap was locked

to the wall beyond the cot. Essu

unfastened it now and brought

Telzey flopping off the cot to the

floor with a sudden haul on the

strap. A short green rod appeared

in Essu's free hand then. He

pointed it at Telzey's legs, and

she felt two sharp insect stings.

"Get " said Essu, practicing

his translingue.

She got up. He shoved her hands

through loops in the back of the

belt, and tightened the loops on

her wrists. Then he took the end of

the strap and left the room with

the prisoner in tow. The Tanvens

had turned right along the passage.

Essu turned left. A closed door

blocked the end, and as they

approached it, he took something

from his pocket, touched the device

to the doorlock. The door swung

open. They went through into an

extension of the passage, and the

door swung shut on its lock behind

them.

There was a sudden heavy stirring

in Telzey's mind.... Elaigar

thoughts. The old male was coming

alert. She realized suddenly he

could hear them. This seemed to be

his area -- and Essu was unaware it

had an occupant. There was a

heavily curtained doorspace in the

wall just ahead--

As they came up to it, the curtains

were swept aside and a huge

Sattaram loomed above them. She

felt Essu's shock of alarm. Then

the Elaigar's hand flicked out with

the same startling speed Stiltik

had shown. Telzey was struck across

the side of the head, went

stumbling back against the wall.

With her hands fastened behind her,

she couldn't get her balance back

quickly enough and sat down.

It hadn't been too hard a blow --

from the giant's point of view no

more than a peevish cuff. But he

wasn't finished. He'd whipped a

heavy knife from his belt, and was

looking down at her. A human! He'd

had no sport for too long a time.

His lip curled, drawing up from big

yellowed teeth.

Telzey felt dismay rather than

fright. Fast-moving they were -- but

this Elaigar's mind was open to her

and he wasn't aware of the fact.

She could slash psi-death into it

through the sloppily held screens

before the knife touched her skin.

But that could cost her too much --

Essu, for one thing. He knew she

was a psi, and if a Sattaram died

in the act of attacking her, he

wasn't likely to consider it a

coincidence. He'd try to get the

information to Stiltik at once. She

was beginning to develop some

degree of control over Essu but was

unsure of its effect on the

unfamiliar Tolant mind. In any

case, she couldn't control him

enough at present to override any

sudden strong motivation. She might

have to kill him in the same

manner.

It was Essu who saved matters then.

He'd hung on to the end of the

strap when Telzey fell, but he

stood as far from her and the

Elaigar as he possibly could, arm

stretched out, eyes averted from

both, as if detaching himself

completely from this unpleasant

situation. When he spoke in the

Elaigar language, he appeared to be

addressing the wall before him.

"Glorious One -- is it your intention

to deprive of prey?"

Slow surge of alarm in the old

Sattaram. Stiltik? The hate-filled

eyes grew vague. He swung his

ponderous head toward the Tolant,

stared a long moment, then turned

and lumbered back through the

doorspace. The curtains swung shut

behind him.

Essu was beside Telzey, jerking her

up to her feet.

"Come! Come!" he hissed in

translingue.

They hurried quietly on along the

passage.

Chapter 6

Essu, though a bold being, had been

shaken by the encounter, and it

continued to preoccupy him. As a

rule, the green uniform of

Stiltik's servants was safeguard

enough against mistreatment by

other Elaigar even when they

weren't aware that he was her

valued assistant. But when age came

on them, they grew morose and

became more savage and

unpredictable than ever. The great

knife might have turned swiftly on

him after it finished Telzey; and

to use one of the weapons on his

belt then would have been almost as

dangerous for Essu as not using

them. Self-defense was no excuse

for killing or injuring one of the

masters.

Much greater, however, had been his

fear of facing Stiltik after

letting her prisoner get killed. He

blamed Telzey for putting him in

such a terrible predicament, and

was simmering with vengeful

notions. But he didn't let that

distract him from choosing the rest

of their route with great care.

Telzey, aware of Essu's angry

spite, was too busy to give it much

consideration. Being involved in

Stiltik's business, the Tolant knew

a great deal more about the circuit

and what went on in it than the

Tanvens; she was getting additional

information now. The four Alattas

involved in bringing her into the

circuit had been operating here as

Otessans -- Tscharen and the woman

Kolki Ming in Stiltik's command,

the other two in Boragost's.

Tscharen was permanently stationed

in the circuit; the others were

frequently given outside

assignments. Stiltik had been

watching Tscharen for some time;

her spy system indicated he was

occasionally engaged in off-duty

activities in unused sealed areas,

and she had her scientists set up

traps. His secret meeting with the

other three and the human they'd

brought into the circuit with them

was observed on a scanner. Knowing

now that she dealt with Alatta

infiltrators, Stiltik sprang her

traps. But so far only Tscharen and

the human had been caught. The

others had withdrawn into sealed

sections, and a search force of

Elaigar and Tolants sent to dig

them out had run into difficulties

and returned empty-handed.

This obviously was a vast portal

system which might almost rival the

Luerral in its ramifications. Essu

had seen a good deal of it on

Stiltik's business, but by no means

every part; and he was no more

aware of exits to the planet or

able to consider the possibility of

making use of them than the

Tanvens. How the Elaigar could have

taken over such a complex, and

killed off the humans living there,

without creating a stir on Tinokti,

was something else he didn't know.

The answer might be found in the

material Telzey's memory tap had

drawn from the old Elaigar, but she

couldn't spare time to start

sorting through that at present.

None of the sections along their

route seemed to be in use by the

Elaigar. It was like moving about

parts of a deserted city through

which a marauding army had swept,

stripping all removable equipment

from some points while others

remained overlooked. Where

maintenance machinery still

functioned completely, it often

appeared that the former occupants

might have left only the day

before.

But all was silent; all was

psi-blocked. Even where daylight or

starshine filled empty courtyards

or flowering gardens, impenetrable

energy screens lay between them and

the unaware world outside.

* * *

The arrangements of Stiltik's

lockup were much like those in the

series of sections through which

Tscharen had taken Telzey. It lay

well within a sealed area, and its

connecting portals showed no

betraying gleam, remained barely

visible for the moment it took Essu

and Telzey to pass them. The Tolant

shoved her eventually into a small

room, slammed and locked the door.

She stayed with him mentally as he

went off down a passage to report

by communicator to Stiltik, who

might be on the far side of Tinokti

now.

He returned presently. The Elaigar

commander had indicated it still

could be several hours before she

sent for them. When he opened the

door, the prisoner was leaning

against the wall. Essu went over to

the single large cot the room

contained, sat down on it, and

fixed his round white eyes on the

human.

Telzey looked at him. Torture and

killing were the high points of

Essu's existence. She didn't

particularly blame him. Tolants

regarded warfare as the natural way

of life, and when a group found

itself temporarily out of

neighbors, it relieved the monotony

by internal blood feuds. Under such

circumstances, the exercise of

cruelty, the antidote to fear,

became a practical virtue. Elaigar

service had done nothing to

diminish the tendency in Essu.

If he hadn't been required to take

on responsibility for the human

captive, he would have been

assisting Stiltik now in her

interrogation of Tscharen. That

pleasure was denied him. The human,

in addition, very nearly had placed

him in the position of becoming a

candidate for Stiltik's lingering

attentions himself. Clearly, she

owed him something! He couldn't do

much to her, but Stiltik wouldn't

begrudge him some minor amusements

to help while away the waiting

period.

Very deliberately then, Essu

brought out the green device with

which he'd jabbed Telzey before,

and let her look at it.

Telzey sighed. She was now supposed

to display fear. Then, after she'd

cringed sufficiently at the threat

of the prod, the hot stings would

begin. If necessary, she could shut

out most of the pain and put up

with that kind of treatment for

quite a while. Essu wouldn't risk

carrying it far enough to

incapacitate her. But it seemed a

good time to find out whether it

was still necessary to put up with

anything at all from him.

She sent a series of impulses

through one of the control centers

she'd secured in Essu's mind. Essu

carefully turned the green rod

down, pointed it at his foot. One

of his fingers pressed a button. He

jerked his foot aside and uttered a

shrill yelp. Then he quietly

returned the rod to his pocket.

It was a good indication of solid

control. However, she didn't feel

quite sure of the Tolant. An

unshielded telepathic mind which

wasn't resisting might be taken

over almost in moments by another

psi, particularly if the other psi

was of the same species. All

required channels were wide open. A

nontelepathic mind, even that of

another human, could require

considerable work. In Essu's mind,

nontelepathic and nonhuman, there

were many patterns which closely

paralleled human ones. Others were

quite dissimilar. Stiltik had left

a kind of blueprint in there for

Telzey to follow, but she didn't

know whether she'd interpreted all

the details of the blueprint

correctly.

She put in some ten minutes of

testing before she was certain.

Essu performed perfectly. There was

no reason to think he wouldn't

continue to perform perfectly when

he was no longer under direct

control.

* * *

They left the sealed area together,

moved on quickly. Stiltik wasn't

likely to come looking for them

soon, but as a start, Telzey wanted

to put considerable distance

between herself and the lockup.

Some while later, she was on a

narrow gallery overlooking a huge

hall, watching Essu cross the hall

almost two hundred yards below. He

knew where he could pick up a set

of circuit maps without drawing

attention to himself, was on his

way to get them. Dependable maps of

the portal system was one of the

things she was going to need. She'd

kept one of Essu's weapons, a small

gun which didn't demand too much

experience with guns to be used

effectively at close range. She

also was keeping his key pack,

except for the keys he needed for

his present mission.

She followed him mentally. Essu

knew what he was doing and it

wouldn't occur to him to wonder why

he was doing it. He'd simply serve

her with mechanical loyalty,

incapable of acting in any other

way. As he reached the portal

toward which he'd been headed and

passed through it, his thought

patterns vanished. But here, within

the psi blocks enclosing the great

hall and part of the structure

behind Telzey, something else

remained. The vague impression of a

Tolant mentality.

So that veteran wild human Thrakell

Dees had managed to follow them, as

he'd said he would, and was now

trying to remain unobtrusive!

Telzey considered. Shortly after

the encounter with the old Elaigar,

she'd become aware of Thrakell's

light, stealthy probe at her

screens. She'd jabbed back

irritatedly with psi and drawn a

startled reaction. After that,

Thrakell refrained from manifesting

himself. She hadn't been sure until

now that he was around.

He might, she thought, turn out to

be more of a problem than a help.

In any case, they'd have to have a

definite understanding if they were

to work together to reach a portal

exit. He'd soon realize that Essu

had left the area. Telzey decided

to wait and see what he would do.

She settled herself on the gallery

floor behind the balustrade, from

where she could keep watch on the

portal where Essu presently would

reappear, and began bringing up

information she'd tapped from the

old Elaigar's mind and hadn't

filtered through her awareness yet.

She could spend some time on that

now. Part of her attention remained

on Thrakell's dimly shifting Tolant

cover impressions.

The hodgepodge of information

started to acquire some order as

she let herself become conscious of

it. The Elaigar's name was Korm.

He'd been Suan Uwin once, a High

Commander, who'd fallen into

disgrace....

She made some unexpected

discoveries next.

They seemed a stranger variation of

the human race than she'd thought,

these Elaigar! Their individual

life span was short -- perhaps too

short to have let them develop the

intricate skills of civilization if

they'd wanted to. As they

considered it, however, mental and

physical toil were equally unworthy

of an Elaigar. They prided

themselves on being the masters of

those who'd acquired advanced

civilized skills and were putting

that knowledge now to Elaigar use.

She couldn't make out clearly what

Korm's measurement of time came to

in Federation units, but by normal

human standards, he wasn't more

than middle-aged, if that. As an

Elaigar, he was very old. That

limitation was a race secret, kept

concealed from serfs. Essu and the

Tanvens assumed Sattarams and

Otessans were two distinct Elaigar

strains. But one was simply the

mature adult, the other the

juvenile form, which apparently

made a rather abrupt transition

presently to adulthood.

The Alattas? A debased subrace. It

had lost the ability to develop

into Sattarams, and it worked like

serfs because it had no serfs.

Beyond that, the Alattas were

enemies who might threaten the

entire Elaigar campaign in the

human Federation

Telzey broke off her review of

Korm's muddled angry mind content.

Had there been some change in those

fake Tolant impressions put out by

Thrakell Dees?... Yes, there had!

She came fully alert.

"Thrakell?"

No response. The impressions

shifted slowly.

"You might as well start talking,"

she told him. "I know you're

there!"

After a moment, his reply came

sulkily. "You weren't very friendly

a while ago!"

He didn't seem far away. Telzey

glanced along the gallery, then

over at the door through which

she'd come out on it. Behind the

door, a passage ran parallel to the

gallery. Thrakell Dees probably was

there.

She said, "I didn't think it was

friendly of you either to try to

get to my mind when you thought I

might be too busy to notice! If

we're going to work together, there

can't be any more tricks like

that."

A lengthy pause. The screening

alien patterns blurred, reformed,

blurred again.

"Where did you send the Tolant?"

Thrakell Dees asked suddenly.

"He's getting something for me."

"What kind of thing?"

This time it was Telzey who didn't

reply. Stalling, she thought. Her

skin began to prickle. What was he

up to?

She glanced uneasily up and down

the gallery. He wasn't there.

But--

Her breath caught softly.

It was as if she'd blinked away a

blur on her vision.

She took Essu's gun from her jacket

pocket, turned, pointed the gun

toward the gallery wall on her

right.

And there Thrakell Dees, moving

very quietly toward her, barely

twenty feet away, came to an abrupt

halt, eyes widening in

consternation.

"Yes, I see you now!" Telzey said

between her teeth, cheeks hot with

anger. "I know that not-there

trick! And it won't work on me when

I suspect it's being used."

Thrakell moistened his lips. He was

a bony man of less than average

height, who might be forty years of

age. He wore shirt and trousers of

mottle brown shades, a round white

belt encircling his waist in two

tight loops. He had small intent

blue eyes, set deep under thick

brows, and a high bulging forehead.

His long hair was pulled sharply to

the back of his head and tied

there. A ragged beard framed the

lower face.

"No need to point the gun at me,"

he said. He smiled, showing bad

teeth. "I'm afraid I was trying to

impress you with my abilities. I

admit it was a thoughtless thing to

do."

Telzey didn't lower the gun. She

felt quite certain there'd been

nothing thoughtless about that

stealthy approach. He'd had a

purpose; and whatever it had been,

it wasn't simply to impress her

with his abilities.

"Thrakell," she said, "just keep

your hands in sight and sit down

over there by the balustrade. You

can help me watch the hall while I

watch you. There're some things I

want you to tell me about -- but

better not do anything at all to

make me nervous before Essu gets

back!"

He shrugged and complied. When he

was settled on the floor to

Telzey's satisfaction, she laid the

gun down before her. Thrakell might

be useful, but he was going to take

watching, at least until she knew

more about him.

He seemed anxious to make amends,

answering her questions promptly

and refraining from asking

questions himself after she'd told

him once there was no time for that

now.

* * *

The picture she got of the Elaigar

circuit was rather startling. What

the Service was confronted with on

Tinokti was a huge and virtually

invisible fortress. The circuit had

no official existence; there never

had been a record of it in Tongi

Phon files. Its individual sections

were scattered about the planet,

most of them buried among thousands

of sections of other circuits,

outwardly indistinguishable from

them. If a section did happen to be

identified and its force screens

were overpowered, which could be no

simple matter in populated areas,

it would be cut automatically out

of the circuit from a central

control section, leaving searchers

no farther than before. The control

section itself lay deep

underground. They'd have to start

digging up Tinokti to locate it.

Then there was a device called the

Vingarran, connected with the

control section. Telzey had found

impressions of it in the material

drawn from Korm's mind. Korm knew

how the Vingarran was used and

hadn't been interested in knowing

more. Thrakell couldn't add much.

It was a development of alien

technology, constructed by the

Elaigar's serf scientists. It was

like a superportal with a minimum

range which made it unusable within

the limited extent of a planet. Its

original purpose might have been to

provide interplanetary

transportation. The Elaigar used it

to connect the Tinokti circuit with

spaceships at the fringes of the

system. They came and went

customarily by that method, though

there were a number of portal exits

to the planetary surface. They were

in no way trapped here by the

Service's investment of Tinokti.

"How could a circuit like that get

set up in the first place?" Telzey

asked.

Thrakell bared his teeth in an

unpleasant grimace.

"Phons of the Institute planned it

and had it done. Who else could

have arranged it secretly?"

"Why did they do it?"

He shrugged. "It was their private

kingdom. Whoever was brought into

it, as I was one day, became their

slave. Escape was impossible. Our

Phon lords were responsible to no

one and did as they pleased --

until the Elaigar came. Then they

were no more than their slaves and

died with them."

Telzey reflected. "You've been able

to tap Elaigar minds without

getting caught at it?" she asked.

"I've done it on occasion,"

Thrakell said, "but I haven't tried

it for some time. I made a nearly

disastrous slip with a relatively

inexperienced Otessan, and decided

to discontinue the practice. An

Elaigar mind is always dangerous --

the creatures are suspicious of one

another and alert for attempted

probes and controls. Instead I

maintain an information network of

unshielded serfs. I can pick up

almost anything I want to know from

one or the other of them, without

running risks." He added, "Of

course, old Korm can be probed

rather safely, as I imagine you

discovered."

"Yes, I did," Telzey said. "Then

you've never tried to control one

of them?"

Thrakell looked startled. "That

would be most inadvisable!"

"It might be." Telzey said, "By our

standards, Korm isn't really old,

is he?"

"Not at all!" Thrakell Dees seemed

amused. "Twenty-four Federation

years, at most."

"They don't live any longer than

?" Telzey said.

"Few live even that long! One

recurring satisfaction I've had

here is to watch my enemies go

lumbering down to death, one after

the other, these past six years.

Stiltik, at seventeen, is in her

prime. Boragost, now twenty, is

past his. And Korm exists only as

an object lesson."

Telzey had seen that part vividly

in Korm's jumbled recalls.

Sattarams, male or female, weren't

expected to outlive their vigor.

When they began to weaken

noticeably, they challenged younger

and stronger Sattarams and died

fighting. Those who appeared

hesitant about it were taken to see

Korm. He'd held back too long on

issuing his final challenge, and

had been shut away, left to

deteriorate, his condition a

warning to others who risked

falling into the same error.

She learned that the Elaigar

changed from the Otessan form to

the adult one in their fourteenth

year. That sudden drastic

metamorphosis was also a racial

secret. Otessans approaching the

point left the circuit; those who

returned as Sattarams weren't

recognized by the serfs. Thrakell

could add nothing to the

information about the Alattas

Telzey already had gathered. He

knew Alatta spies had been captured

in the circuit before this; they'd

died by torture or in ritual combat

with Sattaram leaders. There was a

deadly enmity between the two

obviously related strains.

On the subject of the location of

the Elaigar home territories, he

could offer only that they must be

several months' travel from the Hub

clusters. And Korm evidently knew

no more. Space navigation was serf

work, its details below an

Elaigar's notice.

"Have they caught the three Alattas

who got away from Stiltik yet?"

Telzey asked.

* * *

There Thrakell was informed. He'd

been listening around among his

mental contacts before following

Telzey to the hospital area. The

three still had been at large at

that time, and there seemed to be

no immediate prospect of catching

up with them. They'd proved to be

expert portal technicians who'd

sealed off sizable circuit areas by

distorting portal patterns and

substituting their own. Stiltik's

portal specialists hadn't been able

to handle the problem. The armed

party sent after the three was

equipped with copies of a key pack

taken from Tscharen but had no

better luck. The matter wasn't

being discussed, and Thrakell Dees

suspected not all of the hunters

had returned.

"Stiltik would very much like to be

able to announce that she's rounded

up the infiltrators," he said. "It

would add to her prestige which is

high at present."

"Apparently Stiltik and

Boragost -- the Suan Uwin -- don't

get along very well?" Telzey said.

He laughed. "One of them will kill

the other! Stiltik doesn't intend

to wait much longer to become

senior Suan Uwin, and she's

generally rated now as the

deadliest fighter in the circuit.

The Elaigar make few of our nice

distinctions between the sexes."

Boragost's qualities as a leader,

it appeared, were in question.

Stiltik had been pushing for a

unified drive to clear the Alattas

out of the Federation. She'd gained

a large following. Boragost blocked

the move, on the grounds that a

major operation of the kind

couldn't be carried out without

alerting the Federation's humans to

the presence of aliens. And now

Boragost had committed a blunder

which might have accomplished just

that. "You know what dagens are?"

Thrakell asked.

"Yes. The mind hounds. I saw

Stiltik's when they caught me."

He shifted uncomfortably. "Horrible

creatures! Fortunately, there're

only three in the circuit at

present because few Elaigar are

capable of controlling them. A

short while ago, Boragost fumbled a

dagen kill outside the circuit."

Telzey nodded. "Four Phons in the

Institute. That wasn't planned

then?"

"Far from it! Only one of the Phons

was to die, and that neither in the

Institute nor in the presence of

witnesses. But Boragost failed to

verify the victim's exact

whereabouts at the moment he

released the mind hound, and the

mind hound, of course, went where

the Phon was. When it found him

among others, it killed them, too.

Stiltik's followers claim that was

what brought the Psychology Service

to Tinokti."

"It was," Telzey said. "How will

they settle it?"

"Almost certainly through Stiltik's

challenge to Boragost. The other

high-ranking Sattarams in the Hub

have been coming in with their

staffs through the Vingarran Gate

throughout the week. They'll decide

whether Boragost's conduct under

their codes entitles Stiltik to

challenge. If it does, he must

accept. If it doesn't, she'll be

deprived of rank and returned to

their home territories. The codes

these creatures bind themselves by

are iron rules. It's the only way

they have to avoid major butcheries

among the factions."

Telzey was silent a moment,

blinking reflectively at him.

"Thrakell," she said, "when we met,

you told me you were the last human

left alive in the circuit."

His eyes went wary. "That's right."

"There's been someone besides us

with a human mind in this section

for some little while now," Telzey

told him. "The name is Neto. Neto

Nayne-Mel."

Chapter 7

Thrakell Dees said quickly, "Have

nothing to do with that creature!

She's dangerously unbalanced! I

didn't tell you about her because I

was afraid you might think of

letting her join us."

"I am letting her join us," Telzey

said.

Thrakell shook his head violently.

"I advise you strongly against it!

Neto Nayne-Mel is unpredictable. I

know that she has ambushed and

killed two Elaigar. She could

endanger us all with her hatreds!"

Telzey said, "I understand she was

a servant of the Elaigar in the

circuit for a couple of years

before she managed to get away from

them. I suppose that might leave

someone a little unbalanced. She's

got something for me. I told her to

bring it here to the gallery."

Thrakell grimaced nervously.

"Neto's threatened to shoot me if

she finds me within two hundred

yards of her!"

"Well, Thrakell," Telzey said, "she

may have caught you trying to sneak

up on her, like I did. But that

won't count now. We're going to

need one another's help to get out.

Neto understands that."

Thrakell argued no further. He

still looked badly upset, due in

part perhaps to the fact that

there'd been a mental exchange

between Neto and Telzey of which

he'd remained unaware.

A human being who was to stay alive

and at large for any length of time

in the Elaigar circuit would need

either an unreasonable amount of

luck or rather special qualities.

Thrakell, along with the ability to

project a negation of his physical

presence, had mental camouflage,

and xenotelepathy which enabled him

to draw information from

unsuspecting alien mentalities

around him.

Neto was otherwise equipped. Her

mind didn't shield itself, but its

patterns could be perceived only by

a degree of psi sensitivity which

Thrakell Dees lacked, and the

Elaigar evidently also lacked.

She'd devised a form of physical

concealment almost as effective as

Thrakell's. Her other resources

were quick physical reactions and a

natural accuracy with a gun which

she'd discovered after escaping

from her masters. She'd killed four

Elaigar since then, not two. Her

experiences had, in fact, left her

somewhat unbalanced, but not in a

way Telzey felt at all concerned

about.

A few minutes later, Neto stepped

out suddenly on the gallery a

hundred feet away and started

toward them. The figure they saw

was that of a Fossily mechanic, one

of the serf people in the circuit

-- a body of slim human type

enclosed by a fitted yellow

coverall which left only the face

exposed. The face was a mask of

vivid black and yellow lines. Neto

was almost within speaking distance

before the human features concealed

by the Fossily face pattern began

to be discernible.

That was the disguise Neto had

adopted for herself. Fossily

mechanics, with their tool kits

hung knapsack-wise behind their

shoulders, were employed almost

everywhere in the circuit and drew

no attention in chance encounters.

Moreover, they had a species odor

profoundly offensive to Elaigar

nostrils. Their coverall suits were

chemically impregnated to hide it;

and the resulting sour but

tolerable smell also covered the

human scent. A second yellow tool

bag swung by its straps from Neto's

gloved left hand. In it was a

Fossily suit for Telzey, and black

and yellow face paint.

* * *

Essu returned not long afterwards.

Telzey touched his mind as he

appeared in the portal down in the

great hall, and knew he'd carried

out his assignment. A pack of

circuit diagram maps was concealed

under his uniform jacket. He hadn't

let himself be seen.

He joined them on the gallery,

blandly accepting the presence of

two wild humans and the fact that

Telzey and Neto were disguised as

Fossily mechanics. Telzey looked at

Thrakell Dees.

Thrakell could be a valuable

confederate. Could be. She wasn't

sure what else he might be. Neto

suspected he was a murderer, that

he'd done away with other circuit

survivors. There was no proof of

it, but Telzey hadn't taken her

attention off him since she'd

caught him stalking her in his

uncanny manner on the gallery, and

there'd been an occasional shimmer

of human thought through the cover

pattern, which he'd changed

meanwhile to that of a Fossily

mechanic. She'd made out nothing

clearly, but what she seemed to

sense at those moments hadn't

reduced her uneasiness about

Thrakell.

"Thrakell," she said, "before we

get down to business, I'm giving

you a choice."

He frowned. "A choice?"

"Yes. What I'd like you to do is to

give up that Fossily cover and open

your screens for a minute, so I can

see what you're thinking. That

would be simplest."

Thrakell shook his head. "I don't

understand."

Neto chuckled softly.

"Oh, you understand," Telzey said.

"You wanted to come along when I

try to get out of the circuit, so

you are coming along. But we didn't

get off to a good start, and I

don't feel I can take you on trust

now. You could prove I can by

letting me look at your mind. Just

the surface stuff -- I want to know

what made you decide to contact me,

that's all."

Thrakell's small eyes glittered

with angry apprehension. But his

voice was even. "What if I refuse?"

"Then Essu will take your weapons

and circuit key pack."

Thrakell looked shocked. "That's

completely unfair! If we became

separated, I'd be confined to

whatever section I happened to be

in. I'd be helpless!"

"Well, that will make you see to it

we get separated," Telzey

said. "I don't think we should now.

Which will it be?"

Thrakell jerked his head sullenly

at Neto. "What about her?"

"She's sure of me," Neto told him.

"Quite, quite sure! She's already

been all through my mind, that's

why!" She laughed.

Essu, round white eyes fixed on

Thrakell, reached for a gun on his

belt, and Thrakell said hastily,

"Let the Tolant have the articles

then! I rarely use a weapon, in any

case. I detest violence."

Essu began going over him with his

search devices. Telzey and Neto

looked on.

Telzey could, in fact, be very sure

of Neto. Neto had known no hope of

escape from the circuit. She'd

lived by careful planning and

constant alertness for the past two

years, a vengeful, desperate ghost

slipping about the fringe areas

which would open to the portal keys

she'd obtained, as wary of the few

wild humans who'd still been around

at first as of the Elaigar and

their alien servants. There were

periods when she no longer believed

there was a world outside the

circuit and seemed unable to

remember what she had done before

she met the Elaigar. At other

times, she was aware of what was

happening to her and knew there

could be only one end to that.

Then, once more trailing the

murderer who could slip up on you

invisibly if you weren't careful,

trying to determine what sort of

mischief he was involved in, she'd

touched a new mind.

In moments, Neto knew something

like adoration. She'd found a

protector, and gave herself over

willingly and completely. Let this

other one decide what should happen

now, let her take control, as she

began doing at once.

Neto's stresses dissolved in blind

trust. Telzey saw to it that they

did.

"Two problems," Telzey remarked

presently. "The diagrams don't show

exits to Tinokti, and they seem to

add up to an incomplete map anyway.

Then the keys we have between us

apparently won't let us into more

than about a fourth of the areas

that look worth checking out. We

could be one portal step away from

an exit, know it's there, and still

not be able to reach it."

Thrakell said sourly, "I see no way

to remedy that! Many sections have

a specialized or secret use, and

only certain Elaigar leaders have

access to them. That might well be

the case with sections containing

planetary exits. Then there's the

fact that the Alatta intruders have

altered the portal patterns of

large complexes. I'm beginning to

suspect you'll find yourself no

more able to leave the circuit than

we've been!" He glanced briefly

over at Neto.

"Well," Telzey said, "let's try to

get the second problem worked out

first. Essu knows where he can get

pretty complete sets of portal

packs. But he will need help."

"What place is that?" asked

Thrakell suspiciously. "As far as I

know, only the Suan Uwin possess

omnipacks."

"That's what Essu thinks. These are

in a safe in one of Stiltik's

offices. He can open the safe."

Thrakell shook his head.

"Impossible! Suicidal! The

headquarters of the Suan Uwin are

closely guarded against moves by

political enemies. Even if we could

get into Stiltik's compound, we'd

never get out again alive!"

Neto said boredly to Telzey, "Why

don't you lock this thing up

somewhere? We can pick him up

afterwards, if you feel like taking

him along."

That ended Thrakell's protests. It

wasn't, in fact, an impossible

undertaking. Stiltik used Essu

regularly to carry out special

assignments which she preferred not

to entrust even to close followers.

There was a portal, unmarked and

unguarded, to which only she and

the Tolant had a key. If they were

careful, they could get into the

headquarters compound.

They did presently. They were then

in a small room behind a locked

door. To that door again only

Stiltik and Essu had keys. Unless

Stiltik happened to come in while

they were there, they should be

safe from detection.

* * *

Telzey scanned while her companions

remained behind cover. It took time

because she went about it very

carefully, touching minds here and

there with gossamer lightness.

Details gradually developed. At

last she thought she'd gathered a

sufficiently complete picture.

Elaigar minds were about -- some two

dozen. There was no trace of

Stiltik. The Suan Uwin appeared to

be in an interrogation complex with

the captured Alatta; and that

understandably was a psi-blocked

unit. There were Tolant minds and

two unfamiliar alien mind types

here. The serfs didn't count, and

the only Elaigar in the central

offices were two bored Otessan

females, keeping an eye on the

working staff. They might notice

Essu going into Stiltik's offices

presently, but there was nothing

unusual about that. They weren't

likely to be aware he was supposed

to be somewhere else.

Another of the minds around here

might count for a great deal. It

was that of Stiltik's dagen.

The work she'd put in improving her

psi techniques with Sams Larking

and by herself was making all the

difference now, Telzey thought.

When Bozo was tracking her, she'd

felt and been nearly helpless.

She'd better remain very wary

around this psi beast, but she

wasn't in the least helpless, and

knew it. Her screens hid her mind

from it, and she'd learned how to

reach through the screens with

delicately sensing probes.

A probe reached toward the dagen

mind -- the barest touch. There was

no reaction. Cautiously then,

Telzey began to trace out what she

could discern.

The creature was in an enclosure

without physical exits. It needed

none, of course. On Stiltik's

order, it could flick itself into

the enclosure and out again.

It could do very little that wasn't

done on Stiltik's mental orders.

Stiltik had clamped heavy and rigid

controls on her monster. A human

mind placed under similar controls

would have been effectively

paralyzed. The dagen's rugged

psyche was in no sense paralyzed.

It simply was unable to act except

as its handler permitted it to act.

It wasn't very intelligent, but it

knew who kept it chained.

Telzey studied the controls until

she was satisfied she understood

them. Then she told Essu to go

after the omnipacks in Stiltik's

office. She accompanied him

mentally, alert for developing

problems. Essu encountered none and

was back with the packs five

minutes later. He'd been seen but

disregarded. Nothing seemed to have

changed in the headquarters

compound.

They left by the secret portal, and

Essu handed Telzey its key. She

said to the others, "Wait for me

here! When I come out, we'll go

back along the route we came -- and

for the first few sections we'll be

running."

Thrakell Dees whispered agitatedly,

"What are--"

She stepped through the portal into

the room. Her mind returned gently

to the dagen mind. The beast seemed

half asleep now.

Psi sheared abruptly through

Stiltik's control patterns. As

abruptly, the dagen came awake.

Telzey slipped out through the

portal.

"Now "

* * *

Essu's haul of portal key packs had

been eminently satisfactory. One of

them had been taken from Tscharen

after his capture. Essu interlocked

it with an omnipack, gave the

combination to Telzey. She slipped

it into a pocket of the Fossily

suit. It was small, weighed half as

much as Essu's gun which was in

another pocket of the suit. But it

would open most of the significant

sections of the circuit to her.

Essu assembled a duplicate for

himself with a copy of Tscharen's

pack, clamped the other keys

together at random, and pocketed

both sets. Thrakell Dees looked

bitter, but said nothing. The

arrangement was that he would stay

close enough to Essu to pass

through any portal they came to

with the Tolant. Neto would stay

similarly close to Telzey.

"And now?" Thrakell asked.

"Now we'll pick a route to the

hospital area where the Tanvens put

me back in shape," Telzey said. "We

still want a guide."

Chapter 8

The Third Planetary Exit control

room was quiet. Telzey was at the

instrument stand, watching the

viewscreen. Thrakell Dees sat on

the floor off to her left, with his

back to the wall. He was getting

some of her attention. A Sattaram

giant was near the door behind her.

He needed no attention -- he was

lying on his back and very dead.

In a room on the level below them,

Neto and Korm, one-time Suan Uwin

of the Elaigar, waited behind a

locked door. Some attention from

Telzey was required there from

moment to moment, mainly to make

sure Korm kept his mind shield

tight. He'd been out of practice

too long in that matter. Otherwise,

he seemed ready to go. Neto was

completely ready to go.

The viewscreen showed the circuit

exit area on the other side of the

locked door. The portal which

opened on Tinokti was within a

shielded vault-like recess of a

massive square structure a hundred

yards across -- mainly, it seemed,

as a precaution against an Alatta

attempt to invade the circuit at

this point. The controls of the

shielding and of the portal itself

were on the instrument stand, and

Telzey was ready to use them. She

was also ready to unlock the door

for Neto and Korm.

She couldn't do it at the moment.

Something like a dozen Elaigar

stood or moved around the exit

structure. They were never all in

sight at the same time, so she

wasn't sure of the number. It was

approximately a dozen. Most of them

were Otessans; but at least three

Sattarams were among them.

Technically, they were on guard

duty. Telzey had gathered from

occasional washes of Elaigar

thought that the duty was chiefly a

disciplinary measure; these were

members of visiting teams who'd got

into trouble in the circuit. They

weren't taking the assignment very

seriously, but all wore guns. About

half of them might be in view along

the front of the structure at any

one time. At present, only four

were there.

Four were still too many. Essu

would have been useful now, but

Essu was dead. Korm had been

leading them through a section like

a giant greenhouse, long untended,

when they spotted a Boragost patrol

coming toward them and realized an

encounter couldn't be avoided. The

troops handled it well. Telzey and

Thrakell didn't take part in the

action, and weren't needed. The

patrol -- a Sattaram, an Otessan, six

or seven Tolants -- was ambushed in

dense vegetation, wiped out in

moments. Korm gained a Sattaram

uniform in Boragost's black and

silver, which was better cover for

him than what he was wearing. And

Telzey lost Essu.

She spared a momentary glance for

Thrakell Dees. He was watching her,

face expressionless.

When they'd taken the control room,

looked at the situation in the exit

area, she'd said to him, "You

realize we can only get Neto

through here. You and I'll have to

get away and do something else."

Korm wouldn't accompany them --

that was understood by everyone in

the room but Korm.

Thrakell hadn't argued, and Telzey

wasn't surprised. She'd been

studying him as she'd studied Korm

on the way, trying to draw in as

much last-minute information on a

number of matters as she could. It

had seemed to her presently that

Thrakell Dees didn't really intend

to leave the Elaigar circuit. Why

he'd approached her originally

remained unclear. What he mainly

wanted now was one of the portal

omnipacks she carried, the one Essu

had assembled for her, or the one

she'd taken from Essu after he was

killed.

Thrakell had mentioned it, as a

practical matter, after Korm and

Neto took up their stations on the

lower level, and they were alone in

the control room.

"Thrakell," she'd said, "I need

as a guide now. There's a

place I want to go to next, and it

seems to be about as far from this

part of the circuit as one can get.

I might find it by myself with the

maps, but it'll be faster with you.

We've already spent too much time.

I want to be there before anyone

starts hunting for me."

Thrakell blinked slowly.

"What's the significance of the

place?"

"The Alattas switched me into the

circuit by a portal," Telzey said.

"It may still be there and

operational. If it is, you can get

back to Tinokti, if you like. Or

you can have one of the

omnipacks -- after you've let me look

into your mind. That's still a

condition. We can split up at that

point. Not yet."

Thrakell stared at her a moment.

"I had the curious impression," he

remarked, "that you'd decided

before we got here you wouldn't be

using this exit yourself to leave

the circuit. The degree of control

you've been exercising over Korm

and Neto Nayne-Mel shows you could

have arranged to do it, of course.

I'm wondering about your

motivation."

She smiled. "That makes us even.

I've wondered a bit about yours."

But it had startled her. So he'd

been studying her, too. She'd tried

to be careful, but tensions were

heavy now and she'd been

preoccupied. She wasn't sure how

much she might have revealed.

It was true she couldn't afford to

leave yet. There were possibilities

in the overall situation no one

could have suspected, and her

information wasn't definite enough.

A faulty or incomplete report might

do more harm than none; she simply

wasn't sure. Through Neto she could

see to it that the Service would at

least know everything she was able

to guess at present. So Neto would

be maneuvered safely out of the

circuit here. If possible.

But Neto wouldn't report

immediately. The planetary exit

opened into an old unused Phon

villa. Neto would find money and

aircars there. She'd get out of her

Fossily disguise, move on and lie

low in one of Tinokti's cities for

the next ten days. If Telzey hadn't

showed up by that time, Neto would

contact the Psychology Service.

Telzey leaned forward suddenly,

hands shifting toward the controls

she'd marked. Thrakell stirred in

his corner.

"Stay where you are!" she told him,

without taking her eyes from the

screen. Essu's gun lay on the stand

beside her. With neither Essu nor

Neto to watch him, Thrakell was

going to take careful handling.

She nudged Neto, Korm.

Neto responded. Korm didn't. He

hadn't felt the nudge consciously,

but he was now aware that the

action might be about to begin. He

was eager for it. Telzey had spent

forty minutes working on him before

he led them out of the hospital

area. It was a patchwork job, but

it would hold up as long as it had

to. Korm's fears and hesitancies

had been blocked away; in his mind,

he was the lordly Suan Uwin of a

few years ago. Insult had been

offered him, and there was a raging

thirst for vengeance simmering just

below the surface, ready to be

triggered. His great knife hung

from his belt along with two

Elaigar guns.

Two of the four Otessans who'd been

in view in the screen still stood

near the shielded portal recess.

The other pair had moved toward the

corner of the structure, and a

Sattaram now had appeared there and

was speaking to them. Telzey's

finger rested on the door's lock

switch. She watched the three,

biting her lip.

The Sattaram turned, went around

the side of the structure. The two

Otessans followed. As they

vanished, she unlocked the door in

the room below. Whisper of

acknowledgment from Neto.

And now to keep Korm's shield

tight-- tight--

He came into view below. The two

remaining Otessans turned to look

at him. He strode toward them, the

fake Fossily mechanic trotting

nimbly at his heels, keeping Korm

between herself and the Otessans.

Korm was huge, even among

Sattarams. He was in the uniform of

an officer of Boragost's command,

and his age-ravaged face was half

hidden by black rank markings which

identified him as one of Boragost's

temporary deputies. The two might

be curious about what special duty

brought him here, but no more than

that.

He came up to them. His knife was

abruptly deep in an Otessan chest.

They had flash reactions. The other

had leaped sideways and back, and

his gun was in his hand. It wasn't

Korm but the gun already waiting in

Neto's hand which brought that one

down. She darted past him as the

recess shield opened and the exit

portal woke into gleaming life

behind it. Through recess and

portal -- gone! The recess shield

closed.

Korm's guns and his fury erupted

together. Turning from the screen,

Telzey had a glimpse of Elaigar

shapes appearing at the side of the

structure, of two or three going

down. Korm roared in savage

triumph. He wouldn't last long, but

she'd locked the door on the lower

level again. Survivors couldn't get

out until someone came to let them

out....

That, however, might happen at any

time.

* * *

She was seen twice on the way to

the brightly lit big room where she

and Tscharen had been captured, but

nobody paid the purposefully moving

mechanic any attention; and, of

course, nobody saw Thrakell Dees.

Another time they spotted an

approaching Fossily work party led

by a pair of Otessans, and got out

of sight. They had to stay out of

sight a while then -- the mechanics

were busy not at all far from their

hiding place. Telzey drifted

mentally about the Otessans,

presently was following much of

their talk.

There were interesting rumors going

around about the accident in the

headquarters compound of Stiltik's

command. The two had heard

different versions. It was clear

that the Suan Uwin's mind hound had

slipped its controls and made a

shambles of the place. Stiltik's

carelessness... or could wily old

Boragost have had a hand in that

slipping? They argued the point.

The mind hound was dead; so were an

unspecified number of Stiltik's top

officers. Neither fact would

Boragost! But how could he have

gone about it?

Stiltik, unfortunately, wasn't

among the casualties. She'd killed

the dagen herself. Telzey thought

it might at least keep her mind off

the human psi for a while, though

that wasn't certain. The ambushed

Boragost patrol apparently hadn't

been missed yet; nor was there

mention of a maniac Sattaram who'd

tried to wipe out the guards at

Planetary Exit Three. The circuit

should be simmering with rumors and

speculations presently.

They reached the big room at last.

Telzey motioned Thrakell to stand

off to one side, then went toward

the paneled wall through which

she'd stepped with Tscharen, trying

to remember the exact location of

the portal. Not far from the center

line of the room.... She came to

that point, and no dim portal

outline appeared in the wall. She

turned right, moved along the wall,

left hand sliding across the

panels. Eight steps on, her hand

dipped into the wall. Now the

portal was there in ghostly

semivisibility.

She turned, beckoned to Thrakell

Dees.

She'd memorized the route along

which Tscharen had taken her,

almost automatically, but thinking

even then it wasn't impossible

she'd be returning over it by

herself. She found now she had very

little searching to do. It helped

that these were small circuit

sections, a few rooms cut here and

there out of Tinokti's buildings.

It helped, too, that Thrakell

remained on his best behavior. When

they passed through the glimmering

of a portal into another dim hall

or room, he was closer to her than

she liked, but that couldn't be

avoided. Essu's gun was in a pocket

on the side she kept turned away

from him. Between portals he walked

ahead of her without waiting to be

told.

He knew they'd entered a sealed

area and should know they were

getting close to the place where

she'd been brought into the

circuit. Neither of them mentioned

it. Telzey felt sure he didn't have

the slightest intention of letting

her look into his mind, couldn't

afford to do it. What he did

intend, beyond getting one of the

key packs, remained obscure. Not a

trickle of comprehensible thought

had come through the blur of

reproduced alien patterns, which

now seemed to change from moment to

moment as if Thrakell were

mimicking first one species, then

another. He might be trying to

distract her. She had no further

need of him as a guide; in fact, he

soon could become a liability. The

question was what to do with him.

She located the eight portals along

the route in twice as many minutes.

Then, at the end of a passage,

there was a door. She motioned

Thrakell aside again, tried the

handle, drew the door back, and was

looking down one side of the

L-shaped room into which she'd

been transported from the Luerral

Circuit. The other door, the one by

which the three Alattas had

entered, stood open. The big wall

closet they'd used for storage was

also open. A stink of burned

materials came from it. So

Stiltik's searchers had been here.

She glanced at Thrakell. His intent

little eyes met hers for an

instant. She indicated the room.

"Stand over there against the wall!

I want to look around. And keep

quiet -- Stiltik had gadgets

installed here. They just might

still be operating."

He nodded, entered the room and

stopped by the wall. Telzey went

past him, to the corner of the ell.

There were no signs of damage in

the other part of the room. The

portal which had brought her into

the circuit might still be there,

undetected, and one of the keys

Tscharen had carried might activate

it.

She'd wanted to find out about

that. In an emergency, it could be

the last remaining way of escape.

There was an abrupt crashing sound

high above her, to her left.

Startled, she spun around, looking

up.

Something whipped about her ankles

and drew her legs together in a

sudden violent jerk, throwing her

off balance.

Chapter 9

She went down, turning, as the

metal ring Thrakell had pitched

against the overhead window strip

to deflect her attention clattered

to the floor. The Fossily bag on

her back padded her fall. Thrakell,

plunging toward her, came to an

abrupt stop five feet away.

"You almost made it!" Telzey said

softly. "But don't you dare move

now!"

He looked at the gun pointed at his

middle. His face whitened. "I meant

no harm! I--"

"Don't talk either, Thrakell. You

know I may have to kill you. So be

careful!"

Thrakell was silent then. Telzey

got into a sitting position, drew

her legs up, looked at her ankles

and back at Thrakell. The thing

that clamped her legs together,

held them locked tightly enough to

be painful, was the round white

cord which had been wrapped about

his waist as a belt. No belt -- a

weapon, and one which had fooled

Essu and his search instruments.

"How do you make it stop squeezing

and come loose?" she asked.

It seemed there were controls

installed in each tapered end of

the slick white rope. Telzey told

Thrakell to get down on hands and

knees, stretched her legs out

toward him, and had him crawl up

until he could reach her ankles and

free her. Then she edged back, got

to her feet. The gun had remained

pointed at Thrakell throughout.

"Show me how to work it," she said.

Thrakell looked glum, but showed

her. It was simple enough. Hold the

thing by one end, press the setting

that prepared it to coil with the

degree of force desired. Whatever

it touched next was instantly

wrapped up.

Telzey put the information to use,

and the device soon held Thrakell's

wrists pinned together behind him.

"Now let me explain," he said. He

cleared his throat. "I realized the

circuit exit of which you spoke

must be somewhere nearby --

probably in this room! I was afraid

you might have decided to use it

and leave me here. I only wanted to

be certain you didn't. Surely, you

understand, that?"

"Just stay where you are," Telzey

said.

The key packs she carried evoked no

portal glimmer anywhere in the big

room. The one which had transported

her here probably had been

destructured immediately

afterwards. So there'd be no

emergency escape open to her now by

that route. Part of one of the

walls of the adjoining room had

been blasted away, down to the

point where its materials were

turned into unyielding slickness by

the force field net pressing

against them.

Telzey looked at the spot a moment.

There had been a portal there, the

one by which the three Alattas had

entered. But Stiltik's search party

had located it, and made sure it

wouldn't be used again. No other

portal led away from the room.

She went back into the big room,

told Thrakell, "Go stand against

the wall over there, facing me."

"Why?" he said warily.

"Go ahead. We have to settle

something."

Thrakell moved over to the wall

with obvious reluctance. "You

haven't accepted my explanation?"

"No," Telzey said.

"If I'd wanted to hurt you, I could

have set the cord as easily to

break your legs!"

"Or my neck," Telzey agreed. "I

know you weren't trying to do that.

But I have to find out what you

were trying to do. So get rid of

that blur over your mind, and open

your screens."

"I'm afraid that's impossible,"

Thrakell said.

"You won't do it?"

"I'm unable to do it. I can dispel

one pattern only by forming

another." Thrakell shrugged,

smiled. "I have no psi screen

otherwise, and my mind evidently

refuses to expose itself! I can do

nothing about it consciously."

"That's about what I told Stiltik

when she wanted me to open my

screens," Telzey said thoughtfully.

"She didn't believe me. I don't

believe you either." She took

Essu's gun from her pocket.

Thrakell looked at the gun, at her

face. He shook his head.

"No," he said. "You might have

killed me after I tripped you up.

You felt threatened. But you won't

kill someone who's helpless and

can't endanger you."

"Don't count on it," Telzey said.

"Right now, I'll be trying not to

kill you -- but I probably will,

anyway."

Alarm showed in Thrakell's face.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to shoot as close to you

as I can without hitting you,"

Telzey explained. "But I'm not

really that good a shot. Sooner or

later, you'll get hit."

"That's--"

She lifted the gun, pointed it,

pressed the trigger button. There

was a thudding sound, and a blazing

patch twice the size of her palm

appeared on the wall four inches

from Thrakell's left ear. He cried

out in fright, jerked away from it.

Telzey said, somewhat shakily,

"That wasn't where I was aiming!

And you'd better not move again

because I'll be shooting on both

sides... like this!"

She didn't come quite as close to

him this time, but Thrakell yelled

and dropped to his knees.

"Above your head!" Telzey told him.

The concealing blur of mind

patterns vanished. Thrakell was

making harsh sobbing noises. Telzey

placed the gun back in her pocket.

Her hands were trembling. She drew

in a slow breath.

"Keep it open," she said.

Presently, she added, "I've got

what I wanted -- and I see you're

somebody I can't control. You can

blur up again. And stand up. We're

leaving. How long have you been

working for Boragost?"

Thrakell swallowed. "Two years. I

had no choice. I faced torture and

death!"

"I saw that," Telzey said. "Come

along."

She led the way from the room

toward the portaled sections. She'd

seen more than that. Thrakell Dees,

as she'd suspected, hadn't joined

her with the intention of getting

out of the Elaigar circuit. He

couldn't afford being investigated

on Tinokti, particularly not by the

Psychology Service; and if the

Service learned about him from Neto

or Telzey, he'd have no chance of

avoiding an investigation. Besides,

he'd made a rather good thing out

of being a secret operator for

Boragost. As he judged it, the

Elaigar would remain securely

entrenched on Tinokti and elsewhere

in the Hub for a considerable time.

There was no immediate reason to

think of changing his way of life.

However, he should be prepared to

shift allegiance in case the

showdown between Boragost and

Stiltik left Stiltik on top, as it

probably would. The return of

Telzey alive was an offering which

would smooth his way with Stiltik.

He'd hoped to be able to add to it

the report of an undiscovered

portal used by Alattas.

Under its blurring patterns,

Thrakell's mind was wide open and

unprotected. But Telzey couldn't

simply take control of him as she'd

intended. She'd heard there were

psi minds like that. Thrakell's was

the first she'd encountered. There

seemed to be none of the standard

control points by which a mind

could be secured, and she didn't

have time for experimentation.

Boragost hadn't found a way to

control Thrakell directly. It

wasn't likely she would.

She said over her shoulder, "I'm

taking you along because the only

other thing I can do at the moment

is kill you, and I'd still rather

not. Don't ask questions -- I'm not

telling you anything. You'll just

be there. Don't interfere or try to

get away! If I shoot at you again,

I won't be trying to miss."

* * *

There were portals in the string of

sections she'd come through which

led deeper into the circuit's

sealed areas. At least, there had

to be one such portal. The three

Alattas had used it in effecting

their withdrawal; so had Stiltik's

hunters in following them. It

should open to one of the keys that

had been part of Tscharen's pack.

Telzey found the portal in the

second section up from the big

room, passed through it with

Thrakell Dees into another

nondescript place, dingy and

windowless. A portal presently

awoke to glimmering life in one of

the walls. They went on.

The next section was very dimly lit

and apparently extensive. Telzey

stationed Thrakell in the main

passage, went into a room, checked

it and an adjoining room out,

returned to the passage, started

along it

Slight creak of the neglected

flooring -- and abrupt blazing

awareness of something overlooked!

She dropped to her knees, bent

forward, clawing out Essu's gun.

Thrakell's strangle rope slapped

against the passage wall above her.

She rolled away from it as it fell,

and Thrakell pounced on her,

pinning her to the floor on her

side, the gun beneath her. She

forced it out, twisted the muzzle

up, pressed the trigger blindly.

There was the thudding sound of the

charge, and a yell of alarm from

Thrakell. Something ripped at the

Fossily suit. Then his weight was

abruptly off her. She rolled over,

saw him darting along the passage

toward the portal through which

they'd come, knew he'd got one or

both of her key packs.

She pointed the gun at the moving

figure, pressed the trigger five or

six times as quickly as she could.

She missed Thrakell. But the

charges formed a sudden blazing

pattern on the portal wall ahead of

him, and he veered aside out of the

line of fire and vanished through a

doorspace that opened on the

passage.

Breathing hard, Telzey came up on

her knees, saw one of the key packs

lying beside her, picked it up,

looked at it and put it in her left

suit pocket. The pocket on the

right side had been almost torn

off, and Thrakell had got away with

the other pack. Something stirred

behind her. She glanced around, saw

the white rope lying against the

wall a few feet away -- stretched

out, shifting, turning with stiff

springy motions, unable to grip

what it had touched. She stood up

on shaky legs, reached down until

the gun almost touched the thing,

and blasted it apart. Thrakell

wasn't going to be able to use that

device against her again -- this

time it been aimed at her

neck.

She started quietly down the

passage toward the doorspace, gun

held ready to fire. No sounds came

from anywhere in the section, and

she could pick up no trace of

Thrakell's camouflage patterns. She

didn't like that -- she wasn't sure

now he mightn't have tricks he

hadn't revealed so far.

She stepped out before the

doorspace, gun pointing into the

room behind it.

It was a rather small room, as

dimly lit as the rest of the

section, and empty. Not-there

effect or not, Thrakell wasn't in

it; after a moment, Telzey felt

sure of that. There was another

doorway on one side. She couldn't

see what lay beyond it. But if it

was a dead end, if it didn't lead

to a portal, she had Thrakell boxed

in.

She started cautiously into the

room.

Her foot went on down through the

floor as if nothing were there. She

caught at the doorjamb with her

free hand, discovered it had become

as insubstantial as the floor.

Falling, she twisted backward,

landed on her back in the passage,

legs dangling from the knees down

through the nothingness of the

room's floor... through a portal.

She discovered then that she'd hung

on to the gun. She let go of it,

squirmed back from the trap,

completely unnerved.

Chapter 10

No need to look farther for

Thrakell Dees! When Telzey felt

steady enough to stand up, she went

back to the two rooms she'd

checked. A partly disassembled

piece of machinery stood in one of

them. She looked it over,

discovered a twelve-foot section of

thin, light piping she could

remove, detached it and

straightened it out. She took that

to the room with the portal

flooring, reached down through the

portal with it. The tip didn't

touch anything even when she knelt

in the doorway, her hand a few

inches above the floor, and when

she twisted the piping about

horizontally, she didn't reach the

sides of whatever was below there

either.

She drew the piping out again. It

was cold to the touch now, showed

spots of frosting. The portal trap

extended about twelve feet into the

room. It had been activated by her

key pack, as it had been activated

by the pack Thrakell had taken from

her. Wherever he'd gone, he wasn't

likely to be back.

Essu and Thrakell had heard that

the group Stiltik sent into the

sealed areas after the Alattas had

run into difficulties and returned.

If this was a sample of the

difficulties they'd run into, it

wasn't surprising that Stiltik

seemed to have been in no great

hurry to continue her efforts to

dig the three out of hiding.

When Telzey started off again to

look for the portal which would

take her on to the next section,

her key pack was fastened to the

tip of the piping, and she didn't

put her foot anywhere the pack

hadn't touched and found solid

first. Her diagram maps didn't tell

her at all definitely where she

was, but did indicate that she'd

moved beyond the possibility of

being picked up in scanning systems

installed by Stiltik's technicians.

What lay ahead was, temporarily at

least, Alatta territory. And the

Alattas had set up their own scan

systems. Presently she should be

registering in them.

She uncovered a number of other

portal traps. One of them, rather

shockingly, was a wall portal

indistinguishable from all the

others she'd passed through. If she

hadn't been put on guard, there

would have been no reason to assume

it wasn't the section exit she was

trying to find. But a probe with

the piping revealed there was a

sheer drop beyond. The actual exit

was a few yards farther on along

the wall. She passed through a few

larger sections of the type she'd

had in mind as a place to get rid

of Thrakell Dees, stocked with

provisions sufficient to have kept

him going for years, or until

someone came to get him out. She

stopped in one of them long enough

to wash the Fossily tiger striping

from her face.

And then she was in a section where

it seemed she couldn't go on. She'd

been around the walls and come back

to the portal by which she'd

entered. She stood still,

reflecting. She'd expected to reach

a place like this eventually. What

it would mean was that she had come

to the limit of the area made open

to Tscharen's portal keys. There

should be a second portal here --

one newly provided with settings

which could be activated only by

keys carried now by the other three

Alattas.

But she hadn't expected to get to

that point so soon.

Her gaze shifted to an area of

flooring thirty feet away. There

was a portal there. A trap. An

invisible rectangle some eight feet

long by six wide, lying almost

against the wall. She'd discovered

it as she moved along the wall,

established its contours, gone

around it.

She went back there now, tapping

the floor ahead of her with the key

pack until it sank out of sight.

She drew it back, defined the

outline of the portal with it

again, moved up to the edge. She

hadn't stopped to probe the trap

before; there'd been no reason for

it. Now she reversed the piping,

gripped it by the pack, let the

other end down through the portal.

There was a pull on the piping. She

allowed it to follow the pull. It

swung to her left as if drawn by a

magnet on the far side of the

portal, until its unseen tip

touched a solid surface. It stayed

there. Telzey's eyelids flickered.

She moved quickly around to that

end of the portal, knelt down

beside it, already sure of what

she'd found.

She pulled out the piping, reached

through the portal with her arm,

touched a smooth solid surface

seemingly set at right angles to

the one on which she knelt. She

patted it probingly, lifted her

hand away and let it drop

back -- pulled by gravity which also

seemed set at right angles to the

pull of gravity on this side of the

portal. She shoved the piping

through then, bent forward and came

crawling out of the lower end of a

wall portal into a new section.

* * *

Something like two hours after

setting out from the big room with

Thrakell Dees, she knew she'd

reached the end of her route. She

was now on the perimeter of the

area the Alattas had made

inaccessible to all others. She'd

checked the section carefully. The

only portal she could use here was

the one by which she'd entered. Her

key pack would take her no farther.

There was nothing to indicate what

purpose this section originally had

served. It was a sizable complex

with a large central area, smaller

rooms and passages along the sides.

It was completely empty, a blank,

lifeless place in which her

footsteps raised hollow echoes. She

laid the piping down by a wall of

the central area, got her Tinokti

street clothes out of the Fossily

tool bag, changed to them, and sat

down with her back to the wall.

A waiting game now. She leaned her

head against the wall, closed her

eyes. Mind screens thinned almost

to the point of nonexistence,

permitting ultimate sensitivity of

perception. Meanwhile she rested

physically.

Time passed. At last, her screens

tightened in abrupt warning. She

thinned them again, waited again.

Somewhere something stirred.

It was the least, most momentary of

stirrings. As if ears had pricked

quietly, or sharp eyes had turned

to peer in her direction, not

seeing her yet but aware there was

something to be seen.

A thought touched her suddenly,

like a thin cold whisper:

"If you move, make a sound, or

think a warning, you'll die."

There was a shivering in the air.

Then a great dagen crouched on the

floor fifteen feet away, squatted

back on its haunches, staring at

Telzey. Swift electric thrills ran

up and down her spine. This was a

huge beast, bigger and heavier than

the other two she'd seen, lighter

in color. The small red eyes in the

massive head had murder in them.

Her screens had locked instantly

into a defensive shield. She made

no physical motion at all.

The mind hound vanished.

Telzey's gaze shifted to the left.

A tall figure stood in a passage

entrance, the Alatta woman Kolki

Ming. For a moment, she studied

Telzey, the Fossily bag, the length

of piping with the attached key

pack.

"This is a surprise!" she said. "We

didn't expect you here, though

there was some reason to believe

you were no longer Stiltik's

captive. You came alone?"

"Yes."

The Alatta nodded. "We'll see."

She remained silent a minute or

two, eyes fixed expressionlessly on

Telzey. Telzey guessed the dagen

was scouting through adjoining

sections.

Kolki Ming said suddenly, "It seems

you did come alone. How did you

escape?"

"Stiltik put a Tolant in charge of

me. Essu. We were off by

ourselves."

"And you took Essu under control?"

"Yes."

"Where is he now?"

"He got killed. We ran into some of

Boragost's people."

"A patrol in the ninety-sixth

sector?"

"A big greenhouse."

"You've been busy today!" Kolki

Ming remarked. "That patrol was

reported wiped out by gunfire. Tell

me the rest of it."

Neto Nayne-Mel wouldn't be

mentioned. Telzey gave a brief and

fairly truthful account of her

activities otherwise. She'd planned

to get back to Tinokti at once, had

realized by the time she reached

the planetary exit why she

couldn't -- that she didn't know

enough about the role the Alattas

were playing in connection with the

Tinokti circuit and in the Hub. She

found then she'd worked Korm up too

far to restrain him sufficiently.

She and Thrakell Dees left for the

sealed areas, while Korm went after

the exit guards.

"Where is Boragost's strangler

now?" the Alatta asked.

"We had a disagreement. He fell

through one of your portal traps."

Kolki Ming shook her head slightly.

"And you're here to find out what

we're doing," she said. "The

Elaigar have one dagen less at

their disposal, which is no small

advantage to us. We might seem to

owe you the information. But we

can't let you take it to the

Psychology Service. Essu's body,

incidentally, wasn't found with the

dead of the patrol."

"We took him along and hid him

somewhere else," Telzey said. "I

thought Stiltik mightn't know yet

that I'd got away."

"She may not." The Alatta

considered. "We're involved in an

operation of extreme importance.

Tscharen's capture has forced us to

modify it and made it much more

difficult than it should have been.

It will have to be concluded

quickly if it's to succeed. I'm not

sure we can fit you in, but for the

moment, at least, you're coming

with me. Let me have your gun."

* * *

They emerged from a portal into a

dark narrow street a few minutes

later. The only light came from dim

overhead globes. Looking back as

they walked on, Telzey saw a

dilapidated wall looming behind

them. They'd stepped out of that.

To right and left were small shabby

houses, pressed close together. The

cracked pavement was covered here

and there by piles of litter. There

was a stale smell in the air, and

from somewhere arose a vague

rumbling, so indistinct it seemed a

tactile sensation rather than

something heard.

"This section was some Phon's

private experimental project,"

Kolki Ming said. "It doesn't appear

on any regular circuit map and the

Elaigar never found it, so we're

using it as a temporary operations

base." She glanced about. "Some two

hundred people were trapped here

when the Elaigar came. They escaped

the general killing but were unable

to leave the section and died when

their supplies gave out."

She broke off. Something flicked

abruptly through Telzey's awareness

-- a brief savage flash of psi.

There was a gurgling howl, and the

dagen materialized across the

street from them.

"Scag was waiting for us, hoping to

remain unnoticed," Kolki Ming said.

"He was going to attack?"

"If he got the chance. When he's

under light working controls, as at

present, he needs careful

watching." They'd turned into

another street, somewhat wider than

the first, otherwise no different

from it. On either side was the

same ugly huddle of houses,

lightless and silent. The mind

hound was striding soundlessly

along with them now, thirty feet

away. The Alatta turned in toward

one of the larger houses. "Here's

my watchpost."

The ground floor of the house had

been cleared of whatever it might

have contained. Two portal outlines

flickered on the walls, and a

variety of instruments stood about,

apparently hastily assembled. Kolki

Ming said, "Ellorad and Sartes

won't be back for a while. Sit down

while I check on my duties."

"There's one thing I'd like to

know," Telzey said.

"Yes?"

"How old are you?"

The Alatta glanced over at her.

"So you learned about that," she

said. "I'm twenty-seven of your

standard years. As for the rest of

it, there may be time to talk

later."

Telzey sat down on an empty

instrument case, while Kolki Ming

spoke briefly into a communicator.

She seemed to listen then to a

reply which remained inaudible to

Telzey, and turned to a panel of

scanning devices.

Presently they had time to talk.

* * *

The Elaigar's transition to the

Sattaram form at maturity was

connected with a death gene the

Grisand cult on Nalakia had

designed to help keep the mutation

under control. The Elaigar didn't

know it. After they destroyed the

Grisands, they developed no

biological science of their own,

and to allow serf scientists to

experiment physically with the

masters was unthinkable under their

code system.

But an early group had broken that

rule. They set alien researchers

the task of finding a method of

prolonging their lives. They were

told that for them as individuals

there was no method, but that the

gene could be deleted for their

offspring. They settled for

that -- the Alattas came into

existence. They remained Otessans

in physical structure and had

regained a normal human life span.

With it, they presently regained

lost interests and goals. They had

time to learn, and learned very

quickly because they could draw in

the Elaigar manner on alien science

and technology. Now they began

making both their own.

Most of the Elaigar despised them

equally for having abandoned the

majestic structure of the mature

Lion People and for degrading

themselves with serf labor. They

did their best to wipe out the new

strain, but the Alattas drew ahead

from the start.

"That was centuries ago, of

course," said Kolki Ming. "We have

our own civilization now and no

longer need to borrow from others

-- though the Federation of the Hub

was still one of our teachers on

occasion as little as eighty years

ago. The Elaigar remain dependent

on their slave people and are no

longer a match for us. And their

codes limit them mentally. Some

join us of their own accord, and

while we can do nothing for them,

their children acquire our life

span. Otherwise, we collect the

Elaigar at every opportunity, and

whether they want it or not, any

children of those we collect are

also born as Alattas. They hate us

for that, but they've become

divided among themselves. In part,

that's what led them to risk

everything on this operation in the

Hub. Bringing the old human enemy

under control seemed a project

great enough to unite them again.

When we discovered what they were

doing, we came back to the

Federation ourselves."

Telzey said, "You've been trying to

get them out of the Federation

before we found out they were

around?"

"That was the plan. We want no

revival of that ancient trouble. It

hasn't been a simple undertaking,

but we've worked very carefully,

and our preparations are complete.

We three had the assignment to

secure the central control section

of the Tinokti circuit at a given

moment. If we can do it now, most

of the Sattaram leadership in the

Hub will be trapped. We've waited

months for the opportunity. We're

prepared to move simultaneously

against all other Elaigar positions

in the Federation. So there's a

great deal at stake. If we can't

get the Elaigar out unnoticed

before human forces contact them,

it may become disastrous enough for

all sides. To expect Federation

warships to distinguish neatly

between Alattas and Elaigar after

the shooting begins would be

expecting too much. And it would be

no one-sided matter. We have heavy

armament, as do the Elaigar."

She added, "The Elaigar are

essentially our problem, not that

of the Federation. We're still too

close to them to regard them as

enemies. My parents were of their

kind and didn't elect to have their

gene patterns modified. If they

hadn't been captured and forced to

it, I might have fought for Suan

Uwin rank in my time as ruthlessly

as Boragost or Stiltik -- and, as I

judge you now, so might you if your

ancestors had happened to be

Grisand research subjects on

Nalakia. But we're gaining control

of the Elaigar everywhere. If we

succeed here, the last Sattaram

will be dead less than thirty years

from now."

She broke off, studied a set of

indicators for a moment, picked up

the communicator. Voice murmuring

reached Telzey. It went on for

perhaps two minutes. Kolki Ming set

the communicator aside without

replying. One of the other Alattas

evidently had recorded a message

for her.

She stood up, face thoughtful,

fastened on a gun belt.

"We've been trying to force

Boragost and Stiltik to open the

Lion Game with us," she said.

"It'll be the quickest way to

accomplish our purpose. Perhaps the

only way left at present! It seems

we've succeeded." She indicated the

street door. "We'll go outside. The

first move should be made shortly.

I must call in Scag."

Telzey came to her feet. "What's

the Lion Game?"

"The one you're playing, I think,"

said Kolki Ming. "I don't believe

you've been entirely candid with

me. But whether it was your purpose

or not, it seems you're involved in

the Game now."

Chapter 11

Kolki Ming had set up a light

outside the house which brought

full visibility to a hundred yard

stretch of the dismal street and

its house fronts. She and Telzey

remained near the entrance. Scag

now appeared abruptly in the

illuminated area, stared coldly at

them, glanced back bristling over

his shoulder and was gone again.

Telzey had done the Alattas a

greater favor than she knew in

eliminating Stiltik's dagen. When

they learned of it, they'd been

able to go about their work more

freely. A situation involving the

possible use of dagens became so

dangerously complicated that those

threatened by them had to direct

their primary efforts to getting

the beasts out of the way. Scag had

killed several of Stiltik's people

during their surprise attack in the

sealed areas; so it was known the

three Alattas had brought a mind

hound in with them.

There were two other dagens at

present in the circuit, Boragost's

and one whose handler was a

Sattaram leader who had arrived

with his beast during the week.

Predictably, if Boragost was to

take action against the Alattas, as

it now seemed he would, his first

step would be to use the pair to

get rid of Scag. If the Elaigar

dagens could be finished off at the

same time, it would be worth the

loss of Scag to the Alattas. They

could go ahead immediately then

with their plans.

That was the part of the game being

played at present. Scag came and

went. His kind could sense and

track each other -- he knew he was

being sought by hunters as savage

as he was. He wasn't trying to

evade them. His role simply was to

make sure the encounter took place

here. The gun Kolki Ming held had

been designed for use against

dagens, who weren't easy creatures

to kill.

Now Scag was back, and remained,

half crouched, great head turning

from side to side.

"They're coming!" Kolki Ming

started forward. "Stay here and

don't move!"

Abruptly, two other dagens

appeared, to right and left of

Scag. He hurled himself on the

nearest one.

It became a wild blur of noise and

motion. The street filled with the

deep howling voices of the mind

hounds, sounding like peals of

insane laughter. They grappled and

slashed, flicked in and out of

sight, seeking advantage. Yellow

blood smears began to appear on the

paving behind them. Scag seemed not

at all daunted by the fact that he

was fighting two; they were lesser

beasts, though one wasn't much

smaller than he. For moments, it

looked to Telzey as if he might

kill them unaided. But he was

getting help. Kolki Ming shifted

this way and that about that

spinning tangle, gun in sporadic

action, perilously close to the

struggle. But the dagens ignored

her.

Then one of Scag's opponents lay on

the paving, neck twisted back,

unmoving. Scag and the other

rolled, locked together, across the

street toward Telzey; she watched

yellow blood pumping from the side

of Scag's neck and through his

jaws. The Alatta followed, gun

muzzle now almost touching the back

of the other dagen. The beast

jerked around toward her, jaws

gaping. Scag came to his feet,

stood swaying a moment, head

lowered, made a gurgling noise,

fell.

The other, braced up on its

forelegs, paralyzed hindquarters

dragging, was trying to reach Kolki

Ming. She stepped aside from its

lunge. The gun blazed again at its

flank. It howled and vanished.

She waited perhaps a minute, gun

half lifted. Then she lowered it,

turned back to Telzey.

"Gone back to its handler!" She was

breathing deeply but easily. "They

won't use that one again! But

they'll learn from its mind before

they destroy it that Scag and the

other are dead. Now the codes take

over!"

* * *

Both in practice and theory, the

maximum range of portal shift was

considered definitely established.

The security of the Elaigar

circuits control center was based

on that. Sections within potential

shift range of the center were

heavily guarded; a threat to them

would bring overall defense systems

into instant action.

Alatta scientists had managed to

extend the shift range. For

ordinary purposes the increase was

insignificant. But here

specifically, it could allow Alatta

agents to bypass guarded sections

and reach the control center

without alerting defenders. The

four agents planted in the center

had set up a series of camouflaged

portal contacts which led for the

most part through sealed areas and

ended at the center. The chief

responsibility for this part of the

operation had been Tscharen's.

After the work was completed, it

became a matter of waiting for the

next of the periodic gatherings of

Elaigar leaders. Tscharen's duties

as a member of Stiltik's staff kept

him in the circuit; the other three

were sent off presently on various

assignments. Tscharen evidently

decided to add to his security

measures and was observed at it. As

a result, he and Telzey were picked

up by Stiltik when his associates

returned to the circuit to carry

out the planned operation, and the

others were revealed as Alatta

agents.

The original scheme had to be

abandoned. Stiltik had forced

Tscharen to face her in formal

combat and outmatched him easily.

That made him her personal captive;

she could use any information she

was able to wring from him to her

own advantage. It wasn't an

immediate threat; it should be many

hours before she broke down his

defenses. But the Elaigar in

general had been alerted. A direct

approach to the control center

section would almost certainly be

detected.

The Alattas decided to play on the

tensions between the Suan Uwin,

considerably heightened at the

moment because no one was sure of

the significance of the events for

which Telzey and her group were

responsible. Ellorad and Sartes,

the other two agents, controlled a

number of minds in Boragost's

command. Through them, the feeling

spread among both Boragost's

supporters and opponents that since

Stiltik had walked the Lion Way in

allowing the captured Alatta his

chance in ritual combat, Boragost

could do no less. He must give

personal challenge to the three

trapped in the sealed areas -- which

in turn would draw Stiltik back

into the matter.

"You to fight those

monsters?" Telzey had said,

somewhat incredulously.

"I'd sooner not have to face either

of them," said Kolki Ming.

"Stiltik, in particular. But that

won't be my part here. With Sartes

and Ellorad openly committed, it

will seem we've accepted defeat and

are seeking combat death in

preference to capture. That should

draw the attention of the Elaigar

temporarily off me and give me a

chance to get to the control center

unnoticed."

She added, "The fighting will be

less uneven than you think.

Tscharen had no special combat

skills, but we others were trained

to be collectors of the Elaigar and

are as practiced in the weapon

types allowed under their codes as

any of them. Boragost might prefer

to hunt us down with a sufficient

force of Elaigar and Tolants, but

his prestige is at stake. He's

issued his challenge by sending his

dagens in against ours, and that

part is now concluded, with neither

side retaining an advantage. We'll

accept the challenge shortly by

showing ourselves. Boragost is

bound then by the codes."

She'd cut an opening in the heel of

one of Telzey's shoes and was

assembling a miniature pack of

portal keys to fit into it. Each of

the Alattas carried such a

concealed set, and, in case of

accidents, a more obvious but less

complete pack of standard size such

as the one taken from Tscharen.

That was what had enabled them to

withdraw so quickly from Stiltik's

initial attack.

Telzey said, "It was the Alattas

who were watching me on Orado,

wasn't it?"

"I was," said Kolki Ming.

"Why? After you switched me into

the circuit, you said there were

people who wanted to see me."

"There are. We haven't as much

information as we want about the

type of psis currently in the

Federation. We've avoided contact

with them here, and even the

Elaigar have had the sense to keep

away from the institutions of the

Psychology Service. But some now

believe that the power of the

Psychology Service is based chiefly

on its use of psi machines rather

than on its members' ability as

psis -- in fact, that psis of the

original human strain simply don't

develop a degree of ability that

can compare with our own. And that

can become dangerous thinking. We

have our fools, as you do. Some of

them might begin to assume that the

Federation could be challenged with

impunity."

"You don't think so then?" Telzey

said.

"I happen to know better. But we

wanted to be able to establish the

fact beyond question. I learned on

Orado that a Sattaram handler had

set his dagen on a prying human psi

and that the dagen then had

inexplicably disappeared. That psi

seemed worth further study,

particularly after I'd identified

you and discovered you hadn't yet

attained your physical maturity.

There also seemed to be a

connection between you and the

Psychology Service. It was decided

to pick you up for analysis by

experts, if it could be done

safely. Then the Tinokti matter

came up and you transferred here.

That gave me the opportunity to

bring you into the circuit. We

expected to conclude our operation

quickly, and take you along."

She added, "A lifetime of exile

among us wasn't planned for you.

You'd have remained unconscious

throughout most of the analysis and

presently have found yourself on

Orado again, with nothing of

significance concerning us to

relate. I don't know what the

arrangement will be now, assuming

we survive the next hour or two."

Ellorad and Sartes arrived soon

afterwards. They'd been checking on

developments through their mind

contacts. Boragost had expressed

doubts publicly that the Alatta

agents would choose combat.

However, if they did, he'd be

pleased to meet them in the Hall of

Challenge and add their heads to

his minor trophies. Stiltik

wouldn't involve herself until

Boragost had fought at least once.

"Boragost will have a witness?"

Kolki Ming asked.

"Yes. Lishon, the Adjutant, as

usual," said Sartes. "Stiltik, also

as usual, will fight without

witness -- a hunt in the Kaht Chasm."

Ellorad added, "Sartes will face

Boragost. I'll be his witness

there. We don't want to bring

Stiltik into it too quickly." He

glanced at Telzey. "When we show

ourselves, she may learn for the

first time that she's lost her

human captive and grow hungry for

action. But a Chasm hunt can be

extended, and I'll make it

thoroughly extensive. You should

have the time to do what's

necessary."

Kolki Ming nodded. "Yes, I should."

"Then let's determine our route!

When we're seen, we should be

within a few minutes of the Hall of

Challenge, then out of sight again

until Sartes and I actually enter

the Hall. That will leave Stiltik

no time to interfere with the

present arrangement."

When they set off, the Alattas wore

the short-sleeved shirts, trunks

and boots which had been concealed

by their Sparan garments. Long

knives hung from their belts next

to guns. Combat under code

conditions allowed only weapons

depending on physical dexterity and

strength, and the weapons of psi.

Guns were worn by witnesses as a

formal guarantee that the codes

would be observed. Principals

didn't carry them.

Ellorad and Sartes strode ahead,

moving with relaxed ease. They

looked formidable enough, and if,

to Telzey, even those long powerful

bodies appeared no real match for

the Sattaram giants, they should

know what they were attempting --

which might be only to give Kolki

Ming time to conclude the

operation.

Boragost's technicians had been at

work in fringe sections of the

sealed areas they'd been able to

penetrate, setting up a scanning

system. Kolki Ming had followed

their progress on her instruments.

The route she'd outlined would take

them through such a section. Telzey

didn't know they'd reached it until

a Sattaram voice abruptly addressed

them in the Elaigar language. They

stopped.

The deep harsh voice went on,

speaking slowly and with emphasis.

When it finished, Ellorad replied,

then started toward the end of the

section. The others followed; and

as soon as they'd left the section,

they moved quickly. Kolki Ming said

to Telzey, "That was Boragost's

witness. The challenge has been

acknowledged by both sides, and

we've been told to select the one

who is to face Boragost first and

have him come at once with his

witness to the Hall. It's the

situation we wanted!"

They hurried after the men, came

after another three sections into a

room where the two had turned on a

viewscreen. The screen showed a

wide hall with black and silver

walls. Two Sattarams stood there

unmoving. The one farthest from the

screen wore a gun belt. The other

balanced a huge axe on his

shoulder.

"They entered just now," Ellorad

said. "Sartes is pleased to see

Boragost has selected the long axe.

He thinks he can spin out that

fight until the Suan Uwin is

falling over his own feet!"

The two left immediately. Sartes

had removed his gun, but Ellorad

retained his.

Chapter 12

Kolki Ming said, "That hall is only

two portals from here, but the

Elaigar haven't been able to

establish access to these sections.

Boragost doesn't know we can see

him. We'll wait till the combat

begins, then be off on our route at

once."

Telzey nodded mutely. Boragost

looked almost as huge as Korm and

seemed to her to show no

indications of aging. The handle of

the axe he held must be at least

five feet long.

Ellorad and Sartes appeared

suddenly in the screen, moving

toward the center of the hall.

Sartes walked ahead; Ellorad

followed a dozen steps behind him

and to the right. The two Sattarams

stood motionless, watching them. A

third of the way down the hall,

Sartes and Ellorad stopped. Ellorad

spoke briefly. Lishon rumbled a

reply. Then Sartes drew his knife,

and Boragost grinned, took the axe

in both hands and started

unhurriedly forward--

Kolki Ming sucked in her breath,

sprang back from the screen, darted

from the room. Telzey sprinted

after her, mind in a whirl, not

quite sure of what she'd seen.

There'd been the plum-colored

shapes of Tolants suddenly on

either side of the great hall.

Three, it seemed, on each side --

yes, six in all! As she saw them,

each had an arm drawn back, was

swinging it forward, down. They

appeared to be holding short

sticks. She'd had a blurred glimpse

of Ellorad snatching his gun from

its holster, then falling forward,

of Sartes already on the floor--

Kolki Ming was thirty feet ahead of

her, racing down a passage, then

disappeared through a portal at the

end. Telzey passed through the

portal moments later, saw the

Alatta had nearly doubled the

distance between them, was holding

her gun. Kolki Ming checked

suddenly then, vanished through the

wall on her right.

That portal brought Telzey out into

the great hall they'd been

watching.

There, Kolki Ming's gun snarled and

snarled.

Lishon was on his side, kicking,

bellowing. Boragost had dropped to

hands and knees, his great head

covered with blood, shaking it

slowly as if dazed. Smaller

plum-colored bodies lay and rolled

here and there on the floor. Two

still darted squealing along the

right side of the hall. The gun

found one, flung him twisting

through the air. The other turned

abruptly, disappeared through the

wall--

Portals. The Tolant troop had

received some signal, stepped

simultaneously into the hall

through a string of concealed

portals lining its sides....

Boragost collapsed forward on his

face, lay still.

Kolki Ming glanced around at

Telzey, eyes glaring from a

dead-white face, then hurried past

Boragost toward Lishon. Telzey ran

after her, skirting Sartes on the

floor, saw something small, black

and bushy planted in Sartes's

shoulder.... Throwing sticks,

poisoned darts.

Kolki Ming's gun spoke again.

Lishon roared, in pain or rage. The

Alatta reached him, bent over him,

straightened, and now his gun was

in her other hand. She thrust it

under her belt, started back to

Boragost, Telzey trailing her,

stood looking down at the giant,

prodded his ribs with her boot.

"Dead," she said in a flat voice.

She looked about the hall, wiped

the back of her hand across her

forehead. "All dead but Lishon, who

shares Boragost's dishonor, and a

frightened Tolant. Now we wait. Not

long, I think! The Tolant will run

in his panic to the Elaigar." She

glanced down at Telzey. "Tolant

poison -- our two died as they fell.

Three darts in each. Boragost

didn't like the look of the Lion

Way today! If we hadn't been

watching, his scheme would have

worked. The Tolants and their darts

would have been gone, the punctures

covered by axe strokes. We--"

She broke off.

A wide flight of stairs rose up to

the rear of the hall beyond the

point where Lishon lay. It had

appeared to end against a blank

wall. Now a great slab in that wall

was sliding sideways -- an opening

door linked to an opening portal. A

storm of deep voices and furious

emotion burst through it

simultaneously; then, as the

opening widened, the Elaigar poured

through in a crowd. The ones in the

front ranks checked as they caught

sight of Kolki Ming and Telzey and

turned, outbellowing the others.

The motion slowed; abruptly there

was silence.

Kolki Ming, eyes blazing, flung up

her arms, knife in one hand, gun in

the other, shouted a dozen words at

them.

One of the Sattarams roared back,

tossing his head. The pack poured

down the steps into the hall. The

first to reach Sartes's body bent,

plucked the dart from Sartes's

shoulder, another from his side,

held them up.

At that, there was stillness again.

The faces showed shocked fury. The

Sattaram who had replied to Kolki

Ming growled something. A minor

disturbance in the dense ranks

followed. An Otessan emerged,

holding a Tolant by the neck. The

Tolant began to squeal. The Elaigar

lifted him, clamped the Tolant's

ankles together in one hand, swung

the squirming creature around and

up in a long single-armed sweep,

down again. The squeals stopped as

the body slapped against the

flooring and broke.

The Sattaram looked over at Lishon,

rumbled again. Three others moved

quickly toward Lishon. His eyes

were wide and staring as two hauled

him to his feet, held him upright

by the arms. The third drew a short

knife, shoved Lishon's chin back

with the heel of his hand, sank the

knife deep into Lishon's throat,

drew it sideways.

Dead Boragost didn't feel it, but

he got his throat cut next.

* * *

They were elsewhere then in a room,

Kolki Ming and Telzey, with

something more than a dozen

Sattarams. They didn't appear to be

exactly prisoners at present. Their

key packs had been taken from them

-- the obvious ones -- but Kolki

Ming retained her weapons. The

Elaigar codes were involved; and

from the loud and heated exchange

going on, it appeared the codes

rarely had been called upon to deal

with so complicated a situation.

Shields were tight all around.

Telzey could pick up no specific

impressions, but the general trend

of the talk was obvious. Kolki Ming

spoke incisively now and then. When

she did, the giants listened --

with black scowls, most of them;

but they listened. She was an

enemy, but her ancestors had been

Elaigar, and she and her associates

had shown they would abide by the

codes. Whereupon a Suan Uwin of the

Lion People, aided by his witness,

shamefully broke the codes to avoid

facing Alattas in combat!

A damnable state of affairs! There

was much scratching of shaggy

scalps. Then Kolki Ming spoke

again, now at some length. The

group began turning their heads to

stare at Telzey, standing off by

the wall with a Sattaram who seemed

to have put himself in charge of

her. This monster addressed Telzey

when Kolki Ming stopped speaking.

"The Alatta," he rumbled, "says

you're an agent of the Psychology

Service. Is that true?"

Telzey looked up at him, startled

by his fluent use of translingue.

She reminded herself then that in

spite of his appearance he might be

barely older than she -- could, not

much more than a year ago, have

been an Otessan moving about among

the people of the Hub in something

like Sparan disguise.

"Yes, it's true," she said

carefully.

There was muttering among the

others. Apparently more than a few

knew translingue.

"The Alatta further says," Telzey's

Sattaram resumed, "that it was you

who turned Stiltik's dagen on her

in the headquarters, that you also

stole her omnipacks and made

yourself mind master of her chief

Tolant as well as of Korm Nyokee,

the disgraced one. And that it was

you and your slaves who drew

Boragost's patrol into ambush and

killed them. Finally, that you

chose to restore to Korm Nyokee the

honor he'd lost by letting him seek

combat death. Are all these things

true?"

"Yes."

"Ho!" His tangled eyebrows lifted.

"You then joined the Alatta agents

to help them against us?"

"Yes."

"Ho-ho!" The broad ogre face split

in a slow grin. He dug at his chin

with a thumb nail, staring down at

her. Grunts came from the group

where one of them was speaking,

apparently repeating what had been

said for nonlinguists. Telzey

collected more stares. Her guard

clamped a crushing hand on her

shoulder.

"I've told them before this," he

remarked, "that there are humans

who must be called codeworthy!" His

face darkened. "More so certainly

than Boragost and Lishon! No one

believes now that was the first

treachery committed by those two."

He shook his great head glumly.

"These are sorry times!"

The general discussion had resumed

meanwhile, soon grew as heated as

before. One of the Sattarams

abruptly left the room. Telzey's

giant told her, "He's to find out

what Stiltik wants, since she alone

is now Suan Uwin. But whatever she

wants, we are the chiefs who will

determine what the codes demand."

The Elaigar who'd left came back

shortly, made his report. More

talk, Kolki Ming joining in. The

guard said to Telzey, "Stiltik

claims it's her right to have the

Alatta who was of her command face

her in the Kaht Chasm. It's agreed

this is proper under the codes, and

Kolki Ming has accepted. Stiltik

also says, however, that you should

be returned to her at once as her

prisoner. I think she feels you've

brought ridicule on her, as you

have. This is now being discussed."

Telzey didn't reply. She felt

chilled. The talk went on. Her

Sattaram broke in several times,

presently began to grin. One of the

giants in the group addressed her

in translingue.

"Is it your choice," he asked, "to

face Stiltik in the Kaht Chasm

beside the Alatta Kolki Ming?"

Telzey didn't hesitate. "Yes, it

is."

He translated. Nods from the group.

Telzey's Sattaram said something in

their language. A few of them

laughed. He said to Telzey, holding

out his huge hand, "Give me your

belt!"

She looked up at him, took off her

jacket belt and gave it to him. He

reached inside his vest-like upper

garment, brought out a knife in a

narrow metal sheath, fastened the

sheath on the belt, handed the belt

back. "You were Stiltik's prisoner

and freed yourself fairly!" he

rumbled. "I say you're codeworthy

and have told them so. You won't

face Stiltik in the Kaht Chasm

unarmed!" His toothy grin

reappeared. "Who knows? You may

claim Suan Uwin rank among us

before you're done!"

He translated that for the group.

There was a roar of laughter.

Telzey's giant laughed with the

others, but then looked down at her

and shook his head.

"No," he said. "Stiltik will eat

your heart and that of Kolki Ming.

But if we find then that you were

able to redden your knife before it

happened, I shall be pleased!"

Chapter 13

The portal to which Kolki Ming and

Telzey were taken let them out into

a sloping mountain area. When

Telzey glanced back, a sheer cliff

towered behind them. Tinokti's sun

shone through invisible circuit

barriers overhead.

Kolki Ming turned toward a small

building a hundred yards away.

"Come quickly! Stiltik may not wait

long before following."

Telzey hurried after her. Behind

the building, the rock-studded

slope curved down out of sight.

Perhaps half a mile away was

another steep cliff face. Dark

narrow lines of trees climbed along

it; some sections were covered by

tangles of vines. The great wall

curved in to left and right until

it nearly met the mountain front

out of which they'd stepped. On the

right, at the point where the two

rock masses came closest, water

streamed through, dropping in long

cascades toward the hidden floor of

the Kaht Chasm. Far to the left,

the stream foamed away through

another break in the mountains.

Telzey brushed the thought aside.

Whatever applications of portal

technology were involved, the fact

that water appeared to flow freely

through the force barriers about

this vast section didn't mean there

were possible exit or entry points

there.

She followed Kolki Ming into the

building. The interior was a single

large room. Mountaineering

equipment, geared to Elaigar

proportions, hung from walls and

posts. Ropes, clamps, hooks...

Kolki Ming selected a coil of

transparent rope, stripped hooks

from it, attached it to her belt

beside the long knife which was now

her only weapon. Outside the

building, she stooped, legs bent.

"Up on my back; hang on! We want to

put distance between ourselves and

this place."

Telzey scrambled up, clamped her

legs around the Alatta's waist,

locked her hands on the tough shirt

material. Kolki Ming started down

the slope.

"This is an exercise area for

general use when it isn't serving

as Stiltik's hunting ground," she

said. "As a rule, the Suan Uwin

likes a long chase, but today she

may be impatient. She's tireless,

almost as fast as I am, twice as

strong, and as skilled a fighter on

the rocks as in the water below.

The only exit is at the end of the

Chasm near the foot of the falls,

and it will open now only to

Stiltik's key. Beyond it is her

Hall of Triumph where the Elaigar

will wait to see her display her

new trophies to them."

The slope suddenly dropped off.

Kolki Ming turned her face to the

rock, climbed on down, using hands

and feet and moving almost as

quickly as before. Telzey tightened

her grip. She'd done some rock work

for sport, but that had been a

different matter from this wild,

swaying ride along what was turning

into a precipitous cliff.

A minute or two later, Kolki Ming

glanced sideways and down, said,

"Hold on hard!" and pushed away

from the rock. They dropped. Telzey

clutched convulsively. The drop

ended not much more than twelve

feet below, almost without a jar.

Kolki Ming went on along a path

some three feet wide, leading

around a curve of the cliff.

Telzey swallowed. "How will Stiltik

find us?" she asked.

"By following our scent trail until

she has us in sight. She's a mind

hunter, too, so keep your screens

locked." Kolki Ming's breathing

still seemed relaxed and unhurried.

"This may look like an uneven game

to the Elaigar, but since there

always was a chance I would have to

face Stiltik here some day, I've

made the Chasm my exercise area

whenever I was in the circuit...

and they don't know that of the

three of us I was the dagen

handler."

The rumble of rushing water was

audible now, and growing louder.

The stream must pass almost

directly beneath them, some three

hundred yards down. They moved into

shadow. The path narrowed, narrowed

further. There came a place where

the Alatta turned sideways and

edged along where Telzey could

barely make out footholds, never

seeming to give a thought to the

long drop below. Very gradually,

the path began to widen again as

the curve of the cliff reversed

itself, leading them back into

sunlight. And presently back into

shadow.

Then, as they rounded another

bulge, Telzey saw a point ahead

where the path forked, one arm

leading up through a narrow

crevice, the other descending along

the cliff. An instant later, a

thought tendril touched her

screens, coldly alert, searching.

It lingered, faded.

"Yes, Stiltik's in the Chasm,"

Kolki Ming said. "She'll be on our

trail in moments."

She took the downward fork. It

curved in and out, dipped steeply,

rose again. Kolki Ming checked at

an opening in the rock, a narrow

high cave mouth. Dirt had collected

within it, and cliff vines had

taken root and grown, forming a

tangle which almost filled the

opening.

Kolki Ming glanced back, parted the

tangle, edged inside. "You can get

down."

Telzey slid to the ground, stood on

unsteady legs, drew a long breath.

"And now?" she asked.

"Now," said Kolki Ming, voice and

face expressionless, "I leave you.

Don't think of me. Wait here behind

the vines. You'll see Stiltik

coming long before she sees you.

Then be ready to do whatever seems

required."

She turned, moved back into the

dimness of the cave, seemed to

vanish behind a corner. Completely

disconcerted for the moment, Telzey

stared after her. There came faint

sounds, a scraping, the clattering

of a dislodged rock. Then silence.

Telzey went to the cave opening,

looked back along the path that

wound in and out along the curves

of the cliff. Stiltik would be in

sight on it minutes before she got

this far -- and surely she couldn't

be very close yet! Telzey moved

into the cave, came to the corner

around which Kolki Ming had

disappeared. Almost pitch-darkness

there. After a dozen groping steps,

she came to a stop. There was a

rock before her. On either side,

not much more than two and a half

feet apart, was also rock. Water

trickled slowly down the wall on

the right, seeping into the dust

about her shoes.

She looked up into darkness,

reached on tiptoe, arms stretching,

touched nothing. A draft moved past

her face. So here the cave turned

upward, became a narrow tunnel; and

up that black hole Kolki Ming had

gone. Telzey wondered whether she

would be able to follow, stood a

moment reflecting, then returned to

the cave opening. She sat down

where she could watch their trail,

drew the vines into a thicker

tangle before her. Pieces of rock

lay around, and her hands went out,

began gathering them into a pile,

while her eyes remained fastened on

the path.

* * *

On the path, presently, Stiltik

appeared, coming around a distant

turn. Telzey's breath caught.

Stiltik's bulk looked misshapen and

awkward at that range, but she

moved with swift assurance, like a

creature born to mountain heights,

along a thread of shelf almost

indiscernible from the cave. She

went out of sight behind the thrust

of the mountain, emerged again,

closer.

Telzey let a trickle of fear escape

through her screens, then drew them

into a tight shield. She saw

Stiltik lift her head without

checking her stride. Thought probed

alertly about, slid away. But not

entirely. She sensed a waiting

watchfulness now as Stiltik

continued to vanish and reappear

along the winding path.

Presently Telzey could begin to

distinguish the features of the

heavy-jawed face. A short-handled

double-headed hatchet hung from

Stiltik's belt, along with a knife

and a coil of rope. She came to the

point where the path forked,

paused, measuring the branch which

led up through the crevice, stooped

abruptly, half crouched, bringing

her head close to the ground, face

shifting back and forth, almost

nosing the path like a dog. Telzey

saw the bunching of heavy back

muscles through the material of the

sleeveless shirt. For a moment, it

seemed wholly the posture of an

animal. The giantess straightened,

again looked up along the crevice.

Telzey's hand moved forward. The

pile of rocks she'd gathered

rattled through the vines to the

path below the cave opening. A

brief hot gust of terror burst from

the shield.

Stiltik's head turned. Then,

swiftly, she started along the path

toward the cave.

Telzey sat still, breathing so

shallow it might almost have

stopped. Stiltik's mouth hung open;

her eyes stared, seeming to probe

through the vines. Around a curve

she came, loosening the hatchet at

her belt, cold mind impulses

searching.

A psi bolt slammed, hard, heavy,

fast, jarring Telzey through her

shield. It hadn't been directed at

her.

Stiltik swayed on the path, gave a

grunting exhalation of surprise,

and something flicked down out of

the air above her like a thin

glassy snake. The looped end of

Kolki Ming's rope dropped around

her neck, jerked tight.

One of her great hands caught at

the rope, the other struck up with

the hatchet. But she was stumbling

backward, being hauled off the

path. Two minds slashed at each

other, indistinguishable in fury.

Then Stiltik's massive body plunged

down along the side of the cliff

with a clatter of rocks, dropped

below Telzey's line of sight. The

rope jerked tight again; there was

a crack like the snapping of a

thick tree branch. The end of the

rope flicked down past the path,

following the falling body. From

above came a yell, savage and

triumphant. From below, seconds

later, came the sound of impact.

Abruptly, there was stillness.

Telzey drew a deep, sighing breath,

stood up, pushed her way out

through the vine tangles to the

cave opening. She waited there a

minute or two. Then Kolki Ming,

smeared with the dark slime of the

winding tunnel through which she'd

crept to the cliff top, came down

along the crevice to the fork of

the path, and turned back toward

the cave.

They reached the floor of the Kaht

Chasm presently, found Stiltik's

broken body. Kolki Ming drew her

knife and was busy for a time,

while Telzey sat on a rock and

looked up the Chasm to the point

where the foaming stream tumbled

through a narrow break in the

mountain. She thought she could

make out a pale shimmer on the

rocks. It should be the Chasm's

exit portal, not far from the

falls, and not very far from them

now. Tinokti's sun had moved beyond

the crest of the cliff. All the

lower part of the Chasm lay in deep

shadow.

Then Kolki Ming finished, came to

Telzey and held up dripping

hands. "Blood of a Suan Uwin!"

she said. "The Elaigar will see

your knife reddened. I wonder if

they'll be pleased! Didn't you know

I sensed you draw Stiltik's

attention toward you when her

suspicions awoke? If you hadn't,

I'm not at all sure the matter

could have ended well for either of

us." She drew the knife from

Telzey's belt, ran fingers over

blade, hilt and sheath, replaced

the knife. A knuckle tilted

Telzey's chin up; a hand smeared

wetness across her face. "Don't be

too dainty!" Kolki Ming told her.

"They're to see you took a full

share of their Suan Uwin's defeat."

They walked along the floor of the

Chasm, beside the cold rush of

water, toward the portal shimmer,

Stiltik's blood painting them,

Stiltik's severed head swinging by

its hair from Kolki Ming's right

hand. The portal brightened as they

reached it, and they went through.

The Elaigar stood waiting, filling

the long hall. They walked forward,

toward those nearest the portal.

The giants stared, jaws dropping. A

rumble of voices began here and

there, ended quickly. The Elaigar

standing before them started to

move aside, clearing the way. The

motion spread, and a wide lane

opened through the ranks as they

came on. Beyond, Telzey saw a ramp

leading to a raised section at the

end of the hall. They reached the

ramp, went up it, and at the top

Kolki Ming turned. Telzey turned

with her.

Below stood the Lion People,

unmoving, silent, broad faces

lifted and watching. Kolki Ming's

arm swung far back, came forward.

She hurled Stiltik's head back at

them. It bounced and rolled along

the ramp, black hair whipping

about, blood spattering. It rolled

on into the hall, the giants giving

way before it. Then a roar of

voices arose.

"This way!" said Kolki Ming.

They were at the wall, passed

through a portal, the noise cutting

off behind them.

"Now quickly!"

They ran. None of the sections they

went through in the next minutes

looked familiar to Telzey, but

Kolki Ming didn't hesitate. Telzey

realized suddenly they were back in

sealed areas again; the portals

here were of the disguised variety.

She was gasping for breath, vision

blurring with exhaustion. The

Alatta was setting a pace she

couldn't possibly keep up with much

longer.

Then they were in a room with a

viewscreen stand in one corner.

Here Kolki Ming stopped. "Get your

breath back," she told Telzey. "One

more move only, and we have time

for that -- though perhaps no more

time than it takes Stiltik's blood

to dry on us." She was activating

the screen as she spoke, spinning

dials. Stiltik's Hall of Triumph

swam into view, with a burst of

Elaigar voices. Churning groups of

the giants filled the hall; more

had come in since they left, and

others were still arriving. Most of

them appeared to be talking at

once; and much of the talk seemed

furious argument.

"Now they debate!" said Kolki Ming.

"What do the codes demand? Whatever

conclusion they come to, it will

involve our death. That's

necessary. But first they must

decide how to kill us with honor --

to us and themselves. Then they'll

start asking where we've gone."

She turned away. Telzey watched the

screen a moment longer, her

breathing beginning to ease. When

she looked around, Kolki Ming had

opened a closet in the wall, was

fastening a gun she'd taken from it

to her belt. She removed two small

flat slabs of plastic and metal

from a closet shelf, closed the

closet, laid the slabs on a table.

She came back to the screen, dialed

to another view.

"The control section," she said.

"Our goal now!"

The control section was a large

place. Telzey looked out at a

curving wall crowded with

instrument stands. On the right was

a great black square in the wall --

a blackness which seemed to draw

the mind down into vast depths.

"The Vingarran Gate," said Kolki

Ming. Two Sattarams stood at one

end of the section, watching the

technicians. They wore guns. The

technicians, perhaps two dozen in

all, represented three life forms,

two of which suggested the humanoid

type, though no more so than

Couse's people. The third was a

lumpy disk covered with yellow

scales and equipped with a variety

of flexible limbs.

"Those two must die," Kolki Ming

said, indicating the Sattarams.

"They're controlled servants of the

Suan Uwin, jointly conditioned by

Boragost and Stiltik as safeguard

against surprises by either. The

instrument handlers are

conditioned, too, but they'll be no

problem." She switched off the

screen. "Now come." She took the

two slabs from the table.

There was no more running, though

Kolki Ming still moved swiftly.

Five sections on, she stopped

before a blank wall. "There's a

portal here, left incomplete to

prevent discovery," she said. "The

section's on one of the potential

approaches to the control area, so

it's inspected frequently and

thoroughly. Now I'll close the

field!"

She searched along the wall, placed

one of the slabs carefully against

it. It adhered. She opened the back

of the slab, adjusted settings,

pressed the cover shut. "Come

through immediately behind me," she

told Telzey. "And be very quiet! On

these last fifty steps, things

might still go wrong."

They came out into semidarkness,

went down a flight of stairs.

Below, Kolki Ming halted, head

turned. Telzey listened from behind

her. There were faint distant

sounds, which might be voices but

not Elaigar voices. After some

moments they faded. Kolki Ming

moved on silently, Telzey

following.

The remaining slab went against a

wall. Peering through the dark,

Kolki Ming made final adjustments.

She paused then, stepped back. Her

face turned toward Telzey.

"We weren't able to test this one,"

she whispered. "When I close the

last switch, it will trigger alarms

-- here, in an adjoining guarded

section, and in the control area.

Be ready!"

Her left hand reached out to the

slab. Sound blared in the darkness

about them, and Kolki Ming had

vanished through the portal. Telzey

followed at once.

* * *

The two Sattarams on guard had no

chance. Kolki Ming had emerged from

the wall behind them, gun blazing.

By then, there were guns in their

hands, too; but they died before

they saw her. She ran past the

bodies toward the technicians at

the instrument banks, shouting

Elaigar orders above the clanging

alarm din in the air. The

technicians didn't hesitate. For a

moment, there was a wild scramble

of variously shaped bodies at an

exit at the far end of the big

room. Then the last of them

disappeared.

Kolki Ming was at the instrument

stands, gun back in its holster,

hands flicking about. Series of

buttons stabbed down. Two massive

switches above her swung over,

snapped shut. The alarm signal

ended.

In the sudden silence, she looked

at Telzey who had followed her

across the room.

"And now," she said, drawing a deep

breath, "it's done! Every section

in the circuit has been sealed. No

portal can open until it's released

from this room. Wherever the

Elaigar were a moment ago, there

they'll stay." She smiled without

mirth. "How they'll rage! But not

for long. Now I'll reset the

Vingarran, and the Gate will open

and my people will come through to

remove our captives from section

after section, and take them and

their servants to our transports."

She went to another instrument

console, unlocked it, bent over it.

Telzey stood watching. The Alatta's

hand moved to a group of controls,

hesitated. She frowned. The hand

shifted uncertainly.

Kolki Ming stiffened. Her hand

jerked toward the gun at her belt.

The motion wasn't completed.

She straightened then, turned to

stare at Telzey. And Telzey felt

the Alatta's mind turning also,

wonderingly, incredulously, seeking

a way to escape the intangible web

of holds that had fastened on it,

and realizing there was no way --

that it was unable now even to

understand how it was held.

"You?" Kolki Ming said heavily at

last. "How could--"

"When you killed Stiltik."

A mind blazingly open,

telepathically vulnerable, powers

and attention wholly committed.

Only for instants; but in those

instants, Telzey, waiting and

watching, had flowed inside.

"I sensed nothing." Kolki Ming

shook her head. "Of course -- that

was the first awareness you

blocked."

"Yes," Telzey said. "It was. I had

plenty of time afterwards for the

rest of it."

The Alatta's eyes were bleak. "And

now?"

"Now we're going to a planetary

exit." Telzey touched a point in

the captive mind. "That hidden one

you people installed.... Set up a

route through empty sections, and

unseal that series of portals."

* * *

The planetary exit portal opened on

an enclosed courtyard. Four aircars

stood in a row along one wall.

Telzey paused at the exit beside

Kolki Ming, looking around. It

appeared to be early morning in

that part of Tinokti. They were on

the fringes of a city; buildings

stretched away in the distance.

There were city sounds, vague and

remote.

She glanced down at herself. She'd

washed hands, face and hair on the

way, but hadn't been able to get

her clothing clean. It didn't show;

she'd fastened a wide shawl of

bright-colored fabric around

herself, a strip they'd cut from

tapestry in one of the circuit

sections. It concealed the blood

and dirt stains on her clothes, and

the Elaigar knife at her belt.

She adjusted the shawl, looked up

at the immensely formidable

creature beside her. The Alatta's

eyes returned her gaze without

expression. Telzey started forward

toward the cars. Kolki Ming stayed

where she was. Telzey climbed into

the nearest of the cars, checked

the controls. The interior was

designed to Sparan proportions,

otherwise this was standard

equipment. She could handle it. She

unlocked the engine, turned it on.

A red alert light appeared, then

faded as the invisible energy field

above the court dissolved to let

her through.

She swung the car about, lifted it

from the ground, moved up out of

the court. Two hundred yards away,

she spun the viewscreen dial to

focus on the motionless figure by

the portal. The car drove up and on

in a straight line. When the figure

began to dwindle in the screen,

Telzey abruptly withdrew her holds

from Kolki Ming's mind, slammed her

own shield tight, remembering their

lightning reflexes.

But nothing happened. Kolki Ming

remained where she was for a

moment, seemed to be looking after

her. Then she turned aside,

disappeared through the portal.

Five minutes later, Telzey brought

the car down in a public parking

area, left it there with locked

engine and doors. The entrance to a

general transportation circuit

fronted on the parking space. She

went inside, oriented herself on

the circuit maps, and set out. Not

long afterwards, she exited near a

large freight spaceport.

Chapter 14

The freight port adjoined a

run-down city area with a

population which lived in the main

on Tongi Phon handouts. It had few

attractions and an oversupply of

predators. Otherwise, it was a good

place for somebody who wanted to

drop out of sight.

Telzey let a thoroughly vicious

pair of predators, one of them a

young woman of about her size,

trail her along the main streets

for a while. They were

uncomplicated mentalities, readily

accessible. She turned at last into

a narrow alley, and when they

caught up with her there, they were

her robots. She exchanged street

clothes with the woman in a

deserted backyard, left the alley

with the Elaigar knife wrapped in a

cloth she'd taken from a trash

pile. The two went on in the

opposite direction, the woman

carrying the folded length of

tapestry she'd coveted. Their minds

had been provided with a grim but

plausible account of how she'd come

by it and the blood-stained

expensive clothing she now wore.

Telzey stopped at a nearby store

she'd learned about from them. The

store paid cash for anything

salable; and when she left it a few

minutes later, it had the Elaigar

knife and she had a pocketful of

Tinokti coins. It wasn't much money

but enough for her immediate needs.

An hour later, she'd rented a room

above a small store for a week,

locked the door, and unpacked the

few items she'd picked up. One of

them was a recorder. She turned it

on, stretched out on the narrow

bed.

It was high time. Part of her mind

had been called upon to do more

than was healthy for it in these

hours, and it was now under

noticeable strain. There were

flickerings of distorted thought,

emotional surges, impulses born in

other minds and reproduced in her

own. She'd been keeping it under

control because she had to. Tolant

and Tanven, Elaigar and Alatta,

Thrakell Dees -- Phon Dees once, a

lord of the circuit, and, in the

end, its last human survivor --

they'd all been packed in under her

recent personal experiences which

were crammed and jolting enough.

She'd lived something of the life

of each in their memories, and she

had to get untangled from that

before there were permanent

effects.

She let the stream of borrowed

impressions start boiling through

into consciousness, sorting them

over as they came, drained off

emotional poisons. Now and then,

she spoke into the recorder. That

was for the Psychology Service;

there were things they should know.

Other things might be useful for

her to remember privately. They

went back now into mental storage,

turned into neat, neutral

facts -- knowledge. Much of the rest

was valueless, had been picked up

incidentally. It could be sponged

from her mind at once, and was,

became nonexistent.

The process continued; pressures

began to reduce. The first two days

she had nightmares when she slept,

felt depressed while awake. Then

her mood lightened. She ate when

hungry; exercised when she felt

like it, went on putting her mental

house back in order. By the sixth

day, as recorded by the little

calendar watch she'd bought, she

was done. Her experiences with the

Elaigar, from the first contact in

Melna Park on, were put in

perspective, had become a thing of

the past, no longer to concern her.

Back to normal....

She spent the last few hours of the

day working over her report to the

Psychology Service, and had her

first night of unbroken sleep in a

week. Early next morning, she

slipped the recorder into her

pocket, unlocked the door, went

whistling softly down to the store.

The storekeeper, who had just

opened up, gave her a puzzled look

and scratched his chin. He was

wondering how it could have

completely slipped his mind all

week that he had a renter upstairs.

Telzey smiled amiably at him, went

out into the street. He stared

after her a moment, then turned

away and forgot the renter again,

this time for good.

Telzey walked on half a block,

relaxed her screens and sent an

identification thought to her

Service contacts. A Service squad

was there four minutes later to

pick her up.

* * *

"There's somebody else," Klayung

told her eventually, "who'd like to

speak to you about your report."

This was two days later, and they

were in a Service ship standing off

Tinokti.

"Who is it this time?" Telzey

inquired warily. She'd had a number

of talks with Klayung and a few

other Service people about her

experiences in the Elaigar circuit.

Within limits, she hadn't minded

giving them more detailed

information than the report

provided, but she was beginning to

feel that for the moment she'd been

pumped enough.

"He's a ranking official of a

department which had a supporting

role in the operation," Klayung

said. "For security reasons, he

doesn't want his identity to be

known."

"I see. What about my identity?"

Klayung had been very careful to

keep Telzey unidentified so far.

The role she'd played on Tinokti

was known, in varying degrees, only

to a few dozen members of the

Service, to Neto Nayne-Mel who was

at present in Service therapy, and

to the Alattas, who no longer

mattered.

"We'll have you well camouflaged

during the discussion," Klayung

said. "You'll talk by viewscreen."

"I suppose he isn't satisfied with

the report?" Telzey said.

"No. He feels it doesn't go far

enough and suspects you're holding

things back deliberately. He's also

unhappy about your timing."

She considered. It made no

difference now. "He doesn't know

about the part with Neto, does he?"

"No. Except for you and the

therapists and a few others like

myself, there was no Neto Nayne-Mel

in the circuit."

"Shall I be frank with him

otherwise?"

"Within reason," said Klayung.

She found herself sitting shortly

before a viewscreen, with Klayung

in the room behind her. The

official at the other screen wore a

full face mask. He might as well

have left it off. She knew who he

was as soon as he started to speak.

They'd met on Orado.

She wasn't wearing a mask.

Klayung's make-up people had put in

half an hour preparing her for the

meeting. What the official saw and

heard was an undersized middle-aged

man with a twang to his voice.

The discussion began on a polite if

cool note. Telzey was informed that

the circuit she'd described had

been located that morning. The

force fields about the individual

sections had all cut off

simultaneously. After an entry into

one of the sections was effected,

it was discovered there was no need

for the special portal keys with

which she'd provided the Service.

The entire system was now as open

as any general circuit on Tinokti.

Exploration remained cautious until

it became obvious that the portal

traps of which she'd spoken had

been destructured. Nor was anything

left which might have provided a

clue to the device referred to in

the report as the Vingarran Gate.

"And, needless to say," said the

official, "no one was found in the

circuit."

Telzey nodded. "They've been gone

for a week now. They set the force

fields to shut off after it was

safe, so you could stop looking for

them."

"Meanwhile," the official went on,

"we've had verification enough for

your statement that groups of these

aliens, both the Alattas and the

Elaigar, were masquerading as human

giants throughout the Federation.

They've even owned considerable

property. One well-known shipping

line ostensibly was bought up by a

Sparan organization three years ago

and thereafter operated exclusively

by Sparans. We know now that's not

what they were. All these groups

have vanished. Every positive lead

we've traced reveals the same

story. They disappeared within less

than a standard day of one another,

leaving nothing behind to indicate

where they came from or where

they've gone."

"That was the Alatta plan," Telzey

acknowledged. "They wanted it to be

a fast, clean break and a complete

one.

"It seems," the official said, "you

had this information in your

possession a week before you chose

to reveal it. I'm wondering, of

course, what made you assume the

responsibility of allowing the

aliens to escape."

"For one thing, there wasn't much

time," Telzey said. "If the Alatta

operation was delayed, the

situation would change -- they

wouldn't be able to carry out their

plan as they'd intended. For

another, I wasn't sure everyone

here would understand what the

situation was. I wanted them to be

out of the Hub with the Elaigar

before somebody made the wrong

decision."

"And what makes you sure you made

the right one?" the official

demanded. "You may have saved us

trouble at the moment while setting

us up for much more serious trouble

in the future."

She shook her head.

"They're not coming back," she

said. "If they did, we'd spot them,

now that we know about them. But

the Elaigar won't be able to come

back, and the Alattas don't want

to. They think it will be better if

there's no further contact at all

between them and the Federation for

a good long time to come."

"How do you know?"

"I looked through the mind of one

of them," Telzey said. "That was

one of the things I had to know, of

course."

The official regarded her a moment.

"In looking through that Alatta's

mind, you must have picked up some

impression of their galactic

location...."

"No, I didn't," Telzey said. "I was

careful not to. I didn't want to

know that."

"Why not?" There was an edge of

exasperation to his voice.

"Because think it will be much

better if there's no further

contact, between us for a good long

time. From either side."

The face mask shifted slightly,

turning in Klayung's direction.

"Dr. Klayung," said the official,

"with all the devices at the

Service's disposal, there must be

some way of determining whether

this man has told us the full

truth!"

Klayung scratched his chin.

"Knowing him as I do," he said,

"I'm sure that if he felt he might

be forced to reveal something he

didn't wish to reveal, he'd simply

wipe the matter from his mind. And

we'd get nothing. So we might as

well accept his statement. The

Service is quite willing to do it."

"In that case," the official said,

"there seems to be no point in

continuing this talk."

"I had the impression," Klayung

remarked, as he left the

communication room with Telzey,

"that you knew who he was."

Telzey nodded. "I do. Ramadoon.

How'd he get involved in this? I

thought he was only a Council

Deputy."

"He fills a number of roles,

depending on circumstances,"

Klayung told her. "A valuable man.

Excellent organizer, highly

intelligent, with a total loyalty

to the Federation."

"And very stubborn," Telzey added.

"I think he plans to put in a lot

of effort now to get that psi in

the Tinokti circuit identified."

"No doubt," said Klayung. "But it

won't be long before that slips

from his mind again."

"It will? Well, good! Then I won't

have to worry about it. I can see

why he might feel I've put the

Federation at a disadvantage."

"Haven't you?"

"You didn't believe I don't know

where the Alatta territories are,

did you?"

"No," Klayung said. "We assumed

you'd bring up that subject

eventually."

"Well, I'm telling the Service, of

course. But I thought we'd wait

until things settle down again all

around. I got a good general

impression, but it will take

mapping specialists and plenty of

time to pinpoint it. They must be

way off our charts. And that,"

Telzey added, "technically will put

the Alattas at a disadvantage

then."

"I'm not sure I follow you,"

Klayung said.

"The way the Alattas have worked it

out, the human psis of the time,

and especially the variations in

them, had a good deal to do with

defeating the Elaigar at Nalakia."

"Hmmm!" Klayung rubbed his jaw.

"We've no record of that -- but there

would be none on our side, of

course. An interesting

speculation!"

"They don't think it's speculation.

They're all psis, but they're all

the same general kind of psi.

They're born that way; it's part of

the mutation. They don't change.

They know we vary a lot and that we

do change. That's why they wanted

to take me along and analyze me.

I'm pretty close to the Elaigar

type of psi myself at present, but

they figured there was more to it

than that."

"Well," Klayung said, "you may have

proved the point to their

satisfaction now. The disadvantage,

incidentally, will remain a

technical one. The Service also

feels contacts between the

Federation and the Alattas would be

quite undesirable in any

foreseeable future."

They were passing a reflecting

bulkhead as he spoke, and Telzey

caught a sudden glimpse of herself.

The middle-aged little man in the

bulkhead grimaced distastefully at

her. Her gaze shifted to a big wall

clock at the end of the passageway,

showing Tongi Phon and standard

time and dates.

She calculated a moment.

"Klayung," she said, "does the

Service owe me a favor?"

Klayung's expression became a

trifle cautious. "Why, I'd say

we're under considerable obligation

to you. What favor did you have in

mind?"

"Will you have Make-up turn me back

like I was right away?"

"Of course. And?"

"Can you put me on a ship that's

fast enough to get me to Orado City

this evening, local time?"

Klayung glanced at the clock,

calculated briefly in turn.

"I'm sure that can be arranged," he

said then. He looked curiously at

her. "Is there some special

significance to the time you arrive

there?"

"Not to me so much," Telzey said.

"But I just remembered -- today's

my birthday. I'm sixteen, and the

family wants me to be home for the

party."

--the end--