veryinvolved problem essentially, but this time it wasn't a schoolexercise. Her company waited, withdrawn, silent, aloof once more,while the index blurred, checked, blurred and checked. Within a minuteand a half, she had noted a dozen reference symbols. She tapped inanother of the pinhead tapes, glanced over a few paragraphs, lickedsalty sweat from her lip, and said in her thoughts, emphasizing themeaning of each detail of the sentence so that there would be nomisunderstanding, "This is the Federation law that applies to thesituation which existed originally on this planet...."
There were no interruptions, no commenting thoughts, no intrusions ofany kind, as she went step by step through the section, turned toanother one, and another. In perhaps twelve minutes she came to theend of the last one, and stopped. Instantly, argument exploded abouther.
Telzey was not involved in the argument; in fact, she could grasp onlyscraps of it. Either they were excluding her deliberately, or theexchange was too swift, practiced and varied to allow her to keep up.But their vehemence was not encouraging. And was it reasonable toassume that the Federation's laws would have any meaning for mindslike these? Telzey snapped the library shut with fingers that hadbegun to tremble, and placed it on the ground. Then she stiffened. Inthe sensations washing about her, a special excitement rose suddenly,a surge of almost gleeful wildness that choked away her breath.Awareness followed of a pair of malignant crimson eyes fastened onher, moving steadily closer. A kind of nightmare paralysis seizedTelzey--they'd turned her over to that red-eyed horror! She sat still,feeling mouse-sized.
Something came out with a crash from a thicket behind her. Her muscleswent tight. But it was TT who rubbed a hard head against her shoulder,took another three stiff-legged steps forward and stopped betweenTelzey and the bushes on their right, back rigid, neck fur erect, tailtwisting.
Expectant silence closed in about them. The circle was waiting. In thegreenery on the right something made a slow, heavy stir.
TT's lips peeled back from her teeth. Her head swung towards themotion, ears flattening, transformed to a split, snarling demon-mask.A long shriek ripped from her lungs, raw with fury, blood lust andchallenge.
The sound died away. For some seconds the tension about them held;then came a sense of gradual relaxation mingled with a partly amusedapproval. Telzey was shaking violently. It had been, she was tellingherself, a deliberate test ... not of herself, of course, but of TT.And Tick-Tock had passed with honors. That _her_ nerves had been halfruined in the process would seem a matter of no consequence to thisrugged crew....
She realized next that someone here was addressing her personally.
It took a few moments to steady her jittering thoughts enough to gaina more definite impression than that. This speaker, she discoveredthen, was a member of the circle of whom she hadn't been aware before.The thought-impressions came hard and cold as iron--a personage whowas very evidently in the habit of making major decisions and seeingthem carried out. The circle, its moment of sport over, was listeningwith more than a suggestion of deference. Tick-Tock, far fromconciliated, green eyes still blazing, nevertheless was settling downto listen, too.
Telzey began to understand.
Her suggestions, Iron Thoughts informed her, might appear withoutvalue to a number of foolish minds here, but _he_ intended to see theywere given a fair trial. Did he perhaps hear, he inquired next of thecircle, throwing in a casual but horridly vivid impression of snappingspines and slashed shaggy throats spouting blood, any objection tothat?
Dead stillness all around. There was, definitely, no objection.Tick-Tock began to grin like a pleased kitten.
That point having been settled in an orderly manner now, Iron Thoughtswent on coldly to Telzey, what specifically did she propose theyshould do?
* * * * *
Halet's long, pearl-gray sportscar showed up above the park treestwenty minutes later. Telzey, face turned down towards the open lawlibrary in her lap, watched the car from the corner of her eyes. Shewas in plain view, sitting beside the lake, apparently absorbed inlegal research. Tick-Tock, camouflaged among the bushes thirty feethigher up the bank, had spotted the car an instant before she did andannounced the fact with a three-second break in her purring. Neitherof them made any other move.
The car was approaching the lake but still a good distance off. Itscanopy was down, and Telzey could just make out the heads of threepeople inside. Delquos, Halet's chauffeur, would be flying thevehicle, while Halet and Dr. Droon looked around for her from thesides. Three hundred yards away, the aircar began a turn to the right.Delquos didn't like his employer much; at a guess, he had just spottedTelzey and was trying to warn her off.
Telzey closed the library and put it down, picked up a handful ofpebbles and began flicking them idly, one at a time, into the water.The aircar vanished to her left.
Three minutes later, she watched its shadow glide across the surfaceof the lake towards her. Her heart began to thump almost audibly, butshe didn't look up. Tick-Tock's purring continued, on its regular,unhurried note. The car came to a stop almost directly overhead. Aftera couple of seconds, there was a clicking noise. The purring endedabruptly.
Telzey climbed to her feet as Delquos brought the car down to the bankof the lake. The chauffeur grinned ruefully at her. A side door hadbeen opened, and Halet and Dr. Droon stood behind it. Halet watchedTelzey with a small smile while the naturalist put the heavylife-detector-and-stungun device carefully down on the floorboards.
"If you're looking for Tick-Tock," Telzey said, "she isn't here."
Halet just shook her head sorrowfully.
"There's no use lying to us, dear. Dr Droon just stunned her."
* * * * *
They found TT collapsed on her side among the shrubs, wearing hernatural color. Her eyes were shut, her chest rose and fell in a slowbreathing motion. Dr. Droon, looking rather apologetic, pointed out toTelzey that her pet was in no pain, that the stungun had simply puther comfortably to sleep. He also explained the use of the two sets ofwebbed paralysis belts which he fastened about TT's legs. The effectof the stun charge would wear off in a few minutes, and contact withthe inner surfaces of the energized belts would then keep TTanesthetized and unable to move until the belts were removed. Shewould, he repeated, be suffering no pain throughout the process.
Telzey didn't comment. She watched Delquos raise TT's limp body abovethe level of the bushes with a gravity hoist belonging to Dr. Droon,and maneuver her back to the car, the others following. Delquosclimbed into the car first, opened the big trunk compartment in therear. TT was slid inside and the trunk compartment locked.
"Where are you taking her?" Telzey asked sullenly as Delquos liftedthe car into the air.
"To the spaceport, dear," Halet said. "Dr. Droon and I both felt itwould be better to spare your feelings by not prolonging the matterunnecessarily."
Telzey wrinkled her nose disdainfully, and walked up the aircar tostand behind Delquos' seat. She leaned against the back of the seatfor an instant. Her legs felt shaky.
The chauffeur gave her a sober wink from the side.
"That's a dirty trick she's played on you, Miss Telzey!" he murmured."I tried to warn you."
"I know." Telzey took a deep breath. "Look, Delquos, in just a minutesomething's going to happen! It'll look dangerous, but it won't be.Don't let it get you nervous ... right?"
"Huh?" Delquos appeared startled, but kept his voice low. "Just_what's_ going to happen?"
"No time to tell you. Remember what I said."
* * * * *
Telzey moved back a few steps from the driver's seat, turned around,said unsteadily, "Halet ... Dr. Droon--"
Halet had been speaking quietly to Dr. Droon; they both looked up.
"If you don't move, and don't do anything stupid," Telzey saidrapidly, "you won't get hurt. If you do ... well, I don't know! Yousee, there's another crest cat in the car...." In her mind she added,"Now!"
It was
impossible to tell in just what section of the car IronThoughts had been lurking. The carpeting near the rear passenger seatsseemed to blur for an instant. Then he was there, camouflage dropped,sitting on the floorboards five feet from the naturalist and Halet.
Halet's mouth opened wide; she tried to scream but fainted instead.Dr. Droon's right hand started out quickly towards the big stungundevice beside his seat. Then he checked himself and sat still,ashen-faced.
Telzey didn't blame him for changing his mind. She felt he must be aremarkably brave man to have moved at all. Iron Thoughts, twice asbroad across the back as Tick-Tock, twice as massively muscled, lookedlike a devil-beast even to her. His dark-green marbled hide wascriss-crossed with old scar patterns; half his tossing crimson crestappeared to have been ripped away. He reached