humor, but Dalgetty knew what a flame must suddenlybe leaping up inside him. "Read Voltaire's _Micromegas_."
"I've read such fiction," said Bancroft harshly. "Who hasn't? Allright, why are they here, what do they want?"
"You could say," spoke Dalgetty, "that we favor the Institute."
"But you've been raised from childhood...."
"Oh yes. My people have been on Earth a long time. Many of them areborn here. Our first spaceship arrived in Nineteen Sixty-five." Heleaned forward in the chair. "I expected Casimir to be reasonable andhelp me rescue Dr. Tighe. Since she hasn't done so I must appeal toyour own common sense. We have crews on Earth. We know where all ourpeople are at any given time. If necessary I can die to preserve thesecret of our presence but in that case you will die too, Bancroft.The island will be bombed."
"I...." The chief looked out the window into the enormity of night."You can't expect me to--to accept this as if...."
"I've some things to tell you which may change your mind," saidDalgetty. "They will certainly prove my story. Send your men outthough. This is only for your ears."
"And have you jump me!" snapped Bancroft.
"Casimir can stay," said Dalgetty, "and anyone else you are absolutelycertain can keep a secret and control his own greed."
Bancroft paced once around the room. His eyes flickered back and forthover the watching men. Frightened faces, bewildered faces, ambitiousfaces--it was a hard decision and Dalgetty knew grimly that his liferested on his and Elena's estimate of Thomas Bancroft's character.
"All right! Humphrey, Zimmermann, O'Brien, stay in here. If that birdmoves shoot him. The rest of you wait just outside." They filed out.The door closed behind them. The three guards left posted themselveswith smooth efficiency, one at the window and one at either adjoiningwall. There was a long quiet.
Elena had to improvise the scheme and think it at Dalgetty. He nodded.Bancroft planted himself before the chair, legs spread wide as ifbraced for a blow, fists on hips.
"All right," he said. "What do you want to tell me?"
"You've caught me," said Dalgetty, "so I'm prepared to bargain for mylife and Dr. Tighe's freedom. Let me show you--" He made a move as ifto rise.
"Stay where you are!" snapped Bancroft, and three guns swiveled aroundto point at the prisoner. Elena backed away until she stood beside theone near the desk.
"As you will." Dalgetty leaned back again, casually shoving his chaira couple of feet. He was now facing the window and, as far as he couldtell, sitting exactly on a line between the man there and the man atthe farther wall. "The Union of Tau Ceti is interested in seeing thatthe right kind of civilizations develop on other planets. You could beof value to us, Thomas Bancroft, if you can be persuaded to our side,and the rewards are considerable." His glance went for a moment to thegirl and she nodded imperceptibly. "For example...."
The power rushed up in him. Elena clubbed her gun butt and struck theman next to her behind the ear. In the fractional second before theothers could understand and react Dalgetty was moving.
The impetus which launched him from the chair sent that heavy paddedpiece of furniture sliding across the floor to hit the man behind himwith a muffled thud. His left fist took Bancroft on the jaw as he wentby. The guard at the window had no time to swing his gun back fromElena and squeeze trigger before Dalgetty's hand was on his throat.His neck snapped.
Elena stood over her victim even as he toppled and aimed at the manacross the room. The armchair had knocked his rifle aside. "Drop thator I shoot," she said.
Dalgetty snatched up a gun for himself, leveling it at the door. Hemore than half expected those outside to come rushing in, expectedhell would explode. But the thick oak panels must have choked offsound.
Slowly, the man behind the chair let his rifle fall to the floor. Hismouth was stretched wide with supernatural fear.
"My God!" Dr. Tighe's long form was erect, shaking, his calm brokeninto horror. "Simon, the risk...."
"We didn't have anything to lose, did we?" Dalgetty's voice was thickbut the abnormal energy was receding from him. He felt a surge ofweariness and knew that soon the payment must be made for the way hehad abused his body. He looked down at the corpse before him. "Ididn't mean to do that," he whispered.
Tighe collected himself with an effort of disciplined will and steppedover to Bancroft. "He's alive, at least," he said. "Oh my God, Simon!You could have been killed so easily."
"I may yet. We aren't out of the woods by any means. Find something totie these two others up with, will you, Dad?"
The Englishman nodded. Elena's slugged guard was stirring andgroaning. Tighe bound and gagged him with strips torn from his tunic.Under the submachine-gun the other submitted meekly enough. Dalgettyrolled them behind a sofa with the one he had slain.
Bancroft was wakening too. Dalgetty located a flask of bourbon andgave it to him. Clearing eyes looked up with the same terror. "Nowwhat?" mumbled Bancroft. "You can't get away--"
"We can damn well try. If it had come to fighting with the rest ofyour gang we'd have used you as a hostage but now there's a neaterway. On your feet! Here, straighten your tunic, comb your hair. Okay,you'll do just as you're told, because if anything goes wrong we'llhave nothing at all to lose by shooting you." Dalgetty rapped out hisorders.
* * * * *
Bancroft looked at Elena and there was more than physical hurt in hiseyes. "Why did you do it?"
"FBI," she said.
He shook his head, still stunned, and shuffled over to the deskvisiphone and called the hangar. "I've got to get to the mainland in ahurry. Have the speedster ready in ten minutes. No, just the regularpilot, nobody else. I'll have Dalgetty with me but it's okay. He's onour side now."
They went out the door. Elena cradled her tommy-gun under one arm."You can go back to the barracks, boys," said Bancroft wearily to themen outside. "It's all been settled."
A quarter hour later Bancroft's private jet was in the air. Fiveminutes after that he and the pilot were bound and locked in a rearcompartment. Michael Tighe took the controls. "This boat has legs," hesaid. "Nothing can catch us between here and California."
"All right." Dalgetty's tones were flat with exhaustion. "I'm goingback to rest, Dad." Briefly his hand rested on the older man'sshoulder. "It's good to have you back," he said.
"Thank you, son," said Michael Tighe. "I can't tell you how wonderfulit is to be free again."
IX
Dalgetty found a reclining seat and eased himself into it. One by onehe began releasing the controls over himself--sensitivities, nerveblocs, glandular stimulation. Fatigue and pain mounted within him. Helooked out at the stars and listened to the dark whistle of air withmerely human senses.
Elena Casimir came to sit beside him and he realized that his jobwasn't done. He studied the strong lines of her face. She could be ahard foe but just as stubborn a friend.
"What do you have in mind for Bancroft?" he asked.
"Kidnapping charges for him and that whole gang," she said. "He won'twriggle out of it, I can guarantee you." Her eyes rested on him,unsure, a little frightened. "Federal prison psychiatrists haveInstitute training," she murmured. "You'll see that his personality isreshaped _your_ way, won't you?"
"As far as possible," Simon said. "Though it doesn't matter much.Bancroft is finished as a factor to be reckoned with. There's stillBertrand Meade himself, of course. Even if Bancroft made a fullconfession I doubt that we could touch him. But the Institute has nowlearned to take precautions against extra-legal methods--and withinthe framework of the law we can give him cards and spades and stilldefeat him."
"With some help from my department," Elena said. There was a touch ofsteel in her voice. "But the whole story of this rescue will have tobe played down. It wouldn't do to have too many ideas floating aroundin the public mind, would it?"
"That's right," he admitted. His head felt heavy, he wanted to rest iton her shoulder and sleep for a century. "It's up to you really. Ifyou submi
t the right kind of report to your superiors it can all beworked out. Everything else will just be detail. But otherwise you'llruin everything."
"I don't know." She looked at him for a long while. "I don't know if Ishould or not. You may be correct about the Institute and the justiceof its aims and methods. But how can I be sure, when I don't knowwhat's behind it? How do I know there