"you're a patriot, I guess, and I have toadmire you for that. But you're also a damned fool. You can't get awaywith this--and I think you know it. There are just too many loop-holes."
"Where loop-hole?"
"Well, in the first place, I made a phone call before I got here--whileI was in the car and my defense mech was on. As a result, the policewill be here in a very few minutes--probably before you can get to therocket--"
Blekeke smiled blandly. "Where second place?"
"In the second place, assuming that you do get to the spaceship and takeoff before the police get here, it still won't matter. They _know_, now,who has been operating the telenizer. They can track you down. You'll bepicked up long before you get to Mars." I stood up and strodepurposefully toward him. "Give me the blaster, dammit. You're lickedbefore you're even started."
Blekeke frowned and pointed the blaster at my chest. "Please. So fastnot so. Go back corner, please."
I obediently returned to the corner and sat down. It had been worth atry.
The Martian lowered the weapon and smiled. "You too brave. I not likekill. But pfoof for loop-hole. All plugged. Looking what front-doorcamera see. Polices here now."
He pushed the button on the wall.
* * * * *
A police auto was screeching to a halt in the driveway before the bighouse, and a half-dozen uniformed men, armed with deadly blasters, werepiling out. Another car was whipping around the final curve.
I knew that Maxwell was giving me a look of gratitude, but suddenly Iwasn't sure it was warranted. I had assumed on a sort of blind faiththat the police would get here in time--but as I watched the scene, Ididn't feel so good.
For the policemen were not charging the house. They were not evenlooking at it.
They were milling around, aimlessly. No, not aimlessly, exactly. Theywere looking _for_ something; but they weren't seeing it. One of themgot back in the car and used the radio, and the others wandered around,glancing unseeingly in all directions.
"Mass telenosis?" I asked quietly, not taking my eyes from the scene,feeling my heart pound harder as I caught a glimpse of the bobbing,slower lights of another vehicle on the road far back.
Blekeke said, "Yups. Plug all loop-hole. Police not see house, not seeship. No one see ship leave, not knowing Blekeke on board. Completevanish." He shrugged. "Ship keep commercial schedule. Take auxiliarypower to right course, then switch rocket. Stopped on way, maybe, sowhat? Telenize searchers, yups?"
"What about the house?" I asked.
"Go boom when we leave," Blekeke said.
Maxwell said, "Judas! Everyone will just assume that we and Blekeke andall the cultists have gone boom, too. That's likely to end theinvestigation right there. Slow it down plenty, at least."
Blekeke nodded applaudingly. "Yups. Is so."
He pushed the wall-button and we had the spaceship scene again. Men andMartians were loading large crates into the port of the ship. The otherbulky boxes were being moved across the beach from the opening in thehill.
"Leaving soon now," Blekeke said as he switched the lights on. "Thatmost of vital equipment. Other going boom. We work awful quickness,yups?"
"Just how do you mean?" I asked, more to kill time than out of realcuriosity.
"Ha! You not knowing how quickness we work since morning--since gettingMaxwell brain band on measure machine Sun Ray...."
Maxwell exclaimed; "Oh, hell, of course! Son of a blunder! _That's_ howyou got it."
* * * * *
I had already figured that out, and I guessed it was the informationBlekeke had gained from Maxwell's mind that was forcing him to act now,before he had planned.
"When learned you planning 'vestigate SRI, had move fast," Blekekecorroborated. "So did. Not know you law man till then. Only thatLangston mind stopped 'nosis. Not even knowing why. Worried forwhile--whew!" He wiped the mock perspiration from his brow and smiled.
I said, "The thugs who attacked Maxwell and me were Grogan's men. May Iask now--just out of curiosity--were they telenized, or was Grogan?"
Blekeke seemed happy to reply. "Grogan. Reighardt happened work onGrogan in CI. Also your brain wave number in file, but I getting firston Sun Ray machine."
I had wondered about that, and there was another question that wasbothering me.
"When you started that blood dripping in the bathtub," I said, "was thata deliberate attempt to scare me away, or was that part of the standardtreatment?"
"Standard," Blekeke replied. "Subject no longer trust own senses after.But recognize 'nosis, so trying frighten you. Work good on others."
I started to ask another question, but he switched on the spaceshiploading scene again.
A crane was hauling the last huge crate into the hold. All thehumans--the SRI cultists--were apparently aboard ship. None werevisible. A few Martians stood near the ship, some of them looking towardthe hillock opening, and some watching the loading.
Suddenly two policemen came into view on the screen, walking casuallyover the hill in which the opening was located. At the top they haltedand looked out over the ocean.
One of the men looked over his shoulder and pulled a bottle from aninside pocket. He offered it to his companion, who shook his head. Theman shrugged and took a deep swallow himself, tucking the bottle insidehis jacket again.
I caught a sudden note of mild alarm from Blekeke's mind, which remindedme that he was still listening for careless thoughts of mine.
The policemen continued walking toward the beach, heading to the rightof the spaceship. I saw one of the Martians step back into the shadowof the ship. The others followed the policemen with their eyes.
"We best going now," Blekeke said. He reached to turn off thepicture....
And his hand froze. He saw the same thing I saw, and at just about thesame time.
He saw a dog.
And he must have felt the triumphant, incoherent chortle that gushedfrom my mind.
* * * * *
The dog was a small, ragged, spotted terrier. It came trottingabsentmindedly over the hill after the policemen, and at the top itstopped. It quivered. It sat down, pointed its nose at the spaceship andopened its mouth in a howl I could almost hear.
Then the scene was gone; the lights in the room glowed; Blekeke waspointing the blaster at me.
And his trigger finger was trembling.
He was shaking, very slightly, all over. His red-hued skin had turned amuch paler shade.
I don't think I moved a muscle while I waited for him to speak.
"I should killing you," he said. "Right now, I should killing you. Thenmaybe killing me. Or make boom." He laughed shrilly, almosthysterically. "You very cleverish. Finding one weakener. Tell policesbringing dogs."
"Why, no," I said. "As a matter of fact, I told the dogs to bring thepolice."
That caught his interest. His hand on the blaster relaxed enough so thatI could breath.
"That call I made from the car, coming here," I said. "It wasn't to thepolice. After the results of my first call to them, I thought it wasjust possible that you had somehow telenized all the desk sergeants. Iwasn't thinking too sharp just then. Anyway, I called the city dogpound, instead. I told 'em to get as many dogs out here as fast as theypossibly could."
Blekeke spoke in a very soft voice. "Cleverly, cleverly. And I givingself way."
"You sure did," I agreed. "There's dogs in every damn vision you dreamup, you hate 'em so much. Same way some people have snakes."
Blekeke gestured with the blaster. He had regained some of his color,and he wasn't trembling. "Getting up now. We leaving. Not kill if notnecessary."
Maxwell and I stood up. Blekeke backed through the door, motioning forus to follow. He walked us ahead of him along a corridor and down twoflights of stairs, staying a safe distance behind us.
The entrance to the tunnel was in the basement, through a door thatlooked like any other door.
Blekek
e took off the earphones he was wearing and tossed them aside.
"This 'nizer blow up with house," he said.
The tunnel was wide, straight and brightly lighted. The opposite end wasa small black dot, but it didn't take us long to get there.
My thoughts were running wild, now that no one was listening.
The dogs had bothered Blekeke, but how badly? He seemed so damned sureof himself now. No hesitation at all. Or--was it merely resignation? Ididn't know. But if he once got us aboard that spaceship, his plan had aridiculously good chance of succeeding.
... And would that be so bad? Were his motives so ignoble, or hismethods so very atrocious?
I drove that line of thought from my mind. I could think about