"But they haven't any proper weapons, and they'll all be killed, and that's just what the Exploiters want. And, Nick, Merlo is going to take us before the Council for trial. He's the leader of the group that wants to fight, to make one last attempt to kill all Earthmen on Mars." "What will the Council do?" "Klev doesn't know. They have their own special laws but he isn't sure how they will interpret them. He's against the attack." Klev spoke again, gesturing toward Nick. "What's he saying now?" She translated hesitantly. "He says I shouldn't have brought you down here. He can't seem to understand that you've left the Exploiters." "Damn it, tell him it wasn't your idea." "Useless. We came together." "But the Council--" * * * * * The prospect of being tried by a council of these alien creatures was more terrifying to Nick than any combat. In a fight one at least had a chance to influence the outcome. "Ask the old one if there's any way to escape," he demanded. "Hell, we can't just sit here and take whatever Blueface dishes out." She spoke softly to Klev, and the ancient Martian shook his head regretfully. "Then we've got to wait?" "I'm afraid so. But Klev says he will speak to the Council, and try to get others to speak for us too." "But you, Sue. You didn't--" "I'm an Earth woman," she sighed. "Most of them think now that all Earth people are like those Gravinol-doped killers." Her mention of the drug brought the old craving once more into Nick's thoughts, but this time not too strongly. Resolutely he put it aside. "Dad and I are to blame," the girl lamented. "If we'd broadcast our story when we returned to Earth instead of making a private report to that Harmon monster, all this could never have happened." The situation looked hopeless, but Nick felt no self-pity. He had been trained as a fighter in an environment in which fighters were inevitably killed. But for the first time since childhood he felt shame. Shame that because of him and his kind this girl had lost even her uncertain refuge. Klev rose, patted Susan's shoulder with a long-fingered hand, and walked to the doorway where Merlo waited. "He says he'll see if he can find anyone else to speak for us," she translated his farewell. She took the bundle of clothing Klev had brought and went into the back room. A few minutes later he heard her sobbing and glanced through the archway. She was holding up a pair of ragged brown coveralls much too large for her slender form, the clothes her father had left behind when he made his last trip to the surface. He grew restless under the enforced inactivity and at last moved experimentally toward the doorway. The _varlu_ allowed him to approach within a few feet, and then Nick jumped back just in time to avoid a rubbery tentacle that lashed out at him. A vague hope of escape died as he realized the superhuman speed of which the creature was capable.