Nine men followed X through the door, fanning out among the tables. They were armed with bell-mouthed, Dixon ray rifles. "Everybody keep your seat!" Mr. X called out sharply. A woman screamed. The drums stopped. The dancing girls lapsed into a confused huddle. Instead of a bill, Gavin brought the knucks out of his pocket and clipped the Venusian behind his ear. Snatching the girl's arm, he dragged her through the door. "Run," he commanded. "Run like hell!" He pushed her down the long dimly lit corridor ahead of them. Nadia ran. She hiked up her skirts and ran as if the devil himself were after her. Gavin, hard on her heels, caught the reflection of a yellow ray as one of X's men turned loose at the stage door. The sound of screams, shouts and overturned tables pursued them down the corridor. Gavin caught glimpses of dressing rooms, a scad of Venusian and Terran girls changing costume. He nearly collided with an electronician. Then they burst through a small chamber where a wizened Mercurian sat in a chair propped against the wall—and out into the street. It was the next street over from Mercury Alley, Gavin realized. He hailed a robot cab, piled in with the girl and said, "Pit Nine." The cab darted away from the curb. Gavin caught a flash of bare leg, stared at Nadia. She was hunched in her corner, her face a dim oval in the darkened interior. She pointed something black at him. "I've got a dart-gun!" Her voice trembled. "Don't move! Or I'll shoot!" III Gavin Murdock drew a deep breath. He didn't move. The girl must have carried the gun strapped around her leg above the knee. In that costume it wouldn't have been invisible anyplace else. He said, "It's your move." Without answering him, the girl said, "Change of address—Pit Seven." "Change of address—Pit Seven," the metallic voice of the cab repeated through the speaker overhead. Gavin felt like a blind man playing chess. He narrowed his pale blue eyes. "Where are we going?" "The Nova." Her voice was unfriendly. "But the Nova's at Pit Nine." "Pit Nine's being watched. We're going to use the underground." Gavin shifted slightly, half-turned towards the girl. "Point that dart gun some other direction," he complained. "My blood's running cold." She didn't move it. Gavin's long arm snapped out with the precision of a cat's paw, slapped the gun out of her hands. The girl gasped, "Oh!" snatched for the weapon, but Gavin's hand was already covering it. The gun in his possession, he asked, "Who's watching the Nova?" "As if you didn't know!" Gavin considered this, examining the dart-gun at the same time. It was a tiny thing, curved to fit the roundness of a leg. Beautiful as a jewel. "Oddly enough," he returned dryly, "I don't know."