the shadows andreel onward alone, obviously drunk. Had she then rushed into the alley,she would have found Rilth's corpse sprawled on a pile of rubbish, stilloozing gore from death wounds in throat and heart, and she might havenoticed that his needle gun was gone, and that his empty money pouch layon another wet stain of his uniform where a blade had been wiped clean.
By the time Sy returned to the Street of Delight his staggering gait hadalmost disappeared, and by the time he located a group of technicianswhom he knew, dicing in a gambling establishment, it was gone entirely.He was welcomed with hearty curses into the group--and he began toplay....
It is not known how far the story eventually traveled--and certainly itdid not penetrate even all of the city for many hours, or every gamblingden would have bolted its doors--but by morning a goodly sector ofPronuleon II was buzzing with the tale. It seemed that a certain groupof Fleet Technicians, led by a High Technician--an Earth renegade--knownas Sykin Supcel, had broken the hearts and some of the furniture ofevery gambling proprietor in Dirik. Each player had made good every castof the dice in a run of luck unequaled in the known universe, and hadreturned to their quarters in groaning ground vehicles only when therewas no more gold coin to be found on the Street of Delight, the Avenueof Pleasure or the Way of Joy.
But Sy's exuberance was dulled the next day when he heard of the brutalrobbery-assassination of his friend, Commandant Rilth. "Not that I boreany love for the reptile," he said sorrowfuly to Lord Krut, thusspreading a counter-irritant for possible suspicion, "but he had a goodhead--a keen and valuable mind we would have missed sorely a month ago.As it is...." He straightened resignedly and accepted the responsibilityof Acting Commandant of Fleet Construction Technicians.
A week later, in the midst of official excitement at the gratifyinglysuccessful fleet trials, Sy and Arna slipped away by fast ground vehicleto the tiny isolated cottage of old Loor. Hurriedly they set up theampli-tel apparatus. Loor reclined on his rude cot with his long, narrowhead in the mesh helmet, and Sy taped down contacts and checkedadjustments. He and Arna huddled over the Venusian for half an hour,until he finally opened his eyes and smiled toothlessly.
"Contact with Tel. He says hello."
Sy's face was strained. "Okay. Give him this: Start--all--in. A nail anda corncob, a book and a button. No nail, no corncob, no book, no button.You can strum a zither. End--all--out."
Loor was silent in concentration. Finally he spoke. "Start--all--in. Youneed a drink. End--all--out."
"Good work, Loor!" Sy began to untape the contacts. "Your job here isnow fin--"
The door creaked viciously wide. Arna gasped. A Sur-Malic officer behinda needle gun moved into the small room. Five others crowded in behindhim, similarly armed.
The leader smiled venomously. "Very convenient, Sykin Supcel, for you toleave your vehicle in the open. We have been watching your purulentfriend for days, but we didn't suspect tele--"
Even Arna, who knew what to expect, could detect only a blur of motion.Loor jumped nervously as a pistol stuttered four times and four tinyneedles exploded in the floor; he blinked and finally managed to focushis eyes on Sy only as the last Sur-Malic crumpled lifelessly.
"Solar Mother!" he muttered. "What happened?" He tore the helmet fromhis head and leaped spryly to his feet.
Arna answered while Sy wiped his long knife on one of the bodies andreturned it to a sheath under his jacket. "Sy is able to move prettyfast," she explained. "It's one of his lab-developed abilities. Thenormal eye can't keep up with him when he puts on a spurt."
Loor continued to blink while Sy reduced the amplifier to jumbled scrap,and then the old man found his voice again. "Why," he asked Sy, "didn'tyou use your pistol on them? Wouldn't that be easier?"
Sy dragged the dead officers out of the doorway. "Can't depend onmechanical things," he said briefly. He mopped perspiration from hisforehead and neck. "It's a matter of timing; I size up a situation, sortof estimate distances and positions, and kind of _see_ myself carryingout the actions--and then I go into high gear. It's hard to see, hear,or even consciously think while I'm speeded up. At that speed triggersjust don't pull fast enough."
"If those men had been able to move aside fast enough," said Arna, "Symight have missed them entirely and not even known it until he sloweddown again." She looked with distaste at the bodies, but withoutrepugnance or fear.
Sy hurriedly thrust a bulging pouch of gold into Loor's hand. "Lock thisplace up," he directed, "and start walking immediately for Haldane.We've got to assume we're all known to Sur-Malic Intelligence. Arna andI will remove the outside evidence. All we need now is a little chunk oftime!"
He walked out warily and soon pulled away in the dead officers' vehicle.Arna followed close behind.
Having driven slowly back to Dirik, Sy parked beside a row of similarvehicles to the rear of a city food market in the merchandise district.He walked to where Arna waited and climbed into his own conveyance."Head for our little love-nest, slave," he directed. "You'll want yourtoothbrush, and it would be a shame to leave my hard-won gold behind."
Arna breathed excitedly. "Are we leaving the planet, Sy? Is our workcompleted? Was that what your message meant?"
"My, what a curiosity!" he taunted. He placed an arm about hershoulders. "We're going into seclusion," he leered. "I'll have you allto myself for days and days! Won't that be fun?"
Arna squirmed. "Stop it, Sy--I almost hit that old woman! And stopmaking those pebbles jump up in the road!" She glanced at him bitingly."I suppose you've got things all arranged so we'll have to hide in asingle room!"
"The choice is yours, love." He waved expansively. "Either we steal ascoutship or--how's the _Needle_ for speed?"
"Oh, Sy! Can we actually get the _Needle_? She'll outstrip any warship!_And_ she has a nice private compartment, with a good solid deck outsideit for you. I'll loan you a pillow, maybe."
They took from the apartment only what would fit into small shoulderbags that were matched to their uniforms. Sy briefed Arna while theysped to the vast enclosure which walled off hundreds of impounded alienships.
His towering rage was very evident even as he climbed from the groundvehicle. A callow sentry straightened at the approach of his glitteringinsignia. Sy fixed him with a malific eye. The youth's mouth began totwitch.
"Where," shouted Sy furiously, "is the moronic officer-in-charge?"
The sentry tried to speak.
"Never mind, you brainless rodent!" Sy roared. "Why wasn't that accursedLeague ship delivered to the testing grounds this morning?"
The boy began to stammer.
"Quiet, you miserable lump of offal!" screamed Sy. He turned andbrutally cuffed Arna toward the gate. "Get in there, filthy drone, andraise that ship before I kick your belly to pulp!"
The sentry unlocked the high gate frantically. He watched with ashenfeatures as Sy followed Arna across the yard, cursing, striking andreviling her.
Out of the guard's sight, Sy quickly located the _Needle_ and broke theport seal. Arna clambered in, adjusted controls to planetary drive,wakened the powerful engines to a sighing song of readiness and then ranto her bunk to strap herself down. Sy sealed the port and dived into thesoft, deep clutches of the pilot's gimbaled throne. Within seconds thecraft darted for the horizon, veered, and streaked out from the planeton a straight drive for the blinding orb of Pronuleon.
A hundred miles or more from the blue world behind, the _Needle_ shotthrough the detector field of a Sur-Malic scoutship. Sy didn't bother toswitch on audio for a challenge. Grimly, he located the scoutship'srelative position by the pip on his detector screen and stabbed apattern of buttons to spew quickly-congealing clouds of magnetized dustinto automatically calculated trajectory paths. He smiled with relief aspips sparked into life, indicating the interception of homing missiles.Out of the pursuer's range, he set an erratic course for the sun andcalled to Arna.
For three clock periods they hugged blazing, searing Pronuleon in anorbit that was almost too close for safety. Refrigeration
units strainedfar beyond specified tolerances. Twice, tail toward the inferno forminimum radiation absorption, they barely fought clear of stupendous,surging tentacles of the shifting, agonized gravitational fields ofPronuleon. But they could not be detected so close to a raging sun.
Arna, wretched and exhausted, the thin fabric of a single garmentclinging wetly to her body, leaned wearily against the throne. "Isn't itpossible they think we took a fast course for Sol?" she sighed.
"Very probable," Sy whispered gauntly. Only an hour before he hadrevealed what the girl already suspected--that his code message had