"She lies!" Thela cried out. "She shot them down. So they couldn't talk. She's going to blackmail Father--use the money to make her famous." Jay read the truth in the hard smile the dancer flashed him. She tipped up a defiant chin. And the little expoder in her hand swung to cover Thela and himself. She planned to blackmail Animats Incorporated, once clear of Venus, and their lives meant little to her. She nodded. "Better throw in with me, Jay. We can both be rich--on Animats credits. After what they did to you it's only right." "And keep my mouth shut about this traffic in hunted men?" Jay exploded. He shook his head. "I'll rot in prison first." "You'll not have the chance, Jay." For a brief moment Ina's eyes were soft and pleading. "We could have plenty fun together on all that stardust...." "Even if she kills you," Thela broke in, "I'll talk. I'd rather see Father in prison than...." "You're both fools," said Ina Haan wearily, and the expoder swung up. Her face was twisted now into something not quite human. Her finger moved to depress the firing stud. There was an explosion on the rocks directly behind her and she spun about toward its source. It was Onin Tufor's weapon that had fired the needle. The dying animat had aroused from his stupor long enough to loose but one ill-aimed shot. And that shot had missed. The dancer's explosive needles ripped the lanky man's torso into shreds. [Illustration: _But that blast gave Jay his chance._] But that split second of death gave Jay the opportunity he needed. He sprang at Ina, knocked her expoder spinning, and the edge of his palm smacked hard along the line of her neck. She dropped, unmoving, and Jay knotted her wrists together with a pack strap. Thela came to him, and not far away the stratocars, surface ships equipped with radar and scanning scopes for work inside the Venusian cloud envelope, were grounding. In a few moments they would be bound for civilization again. "I meant it, Jay," said Thela softly, her breathing shallow and unsteady. "No matter what comes--I'm blasting along with you." With his arm around her waist the chunky man who had been an animat awaited the coming of the rescue party.