Hammond's tightened muscles relaxed: the sweat on his forehead felt cool. Unexpectedly, he had been given a breathing spell. But for how long? Instinctively he tested the flexible, silken straps that held him to the table. They did not give, though his muscles bunched and strained. There was a silken thong about his neck, holding his head down. He turned his head, slowly, till he faced Storm. "Looks like our friend Zuggoth never heard of an anesthetic," he muttered, with an attempt at casualness he did not feel. "Funny thing, Pete, it still doesn't seem real. All this, I mean. Just a few hours ago we were in a skiff, fishing for blues. Now--" Pete managed a grin. "Now we're still in the boat. Only it isn't--" Looking toward Hammond, he was facing the laboratory door, and he saw them first. Hybrids, armed with shield and electronic rifles. Two of them. One of them carried red and green insignia on its dwarfed right arm. Hammond turned his head, warned by the look on Storm's face. The laboratory head, Cuzzvi, saw the intruders a moment later. He drew up stiffly, evidently noting the rank of the foremost hybrid. Then, all at once, he whirled, gave a short cry of warning to his assistants, and reached for an electronic rifle in a wall rack. The rifles in the hands of the strange hybrids lanced their electronic bolts. Cuzzvi staggered against the fluoroscope, his green face fused into black mess. The other two assistants made a dash for a door in the far end of the room. Neither reached it. A moment later the hybrid officer was bending over Hammond, releasing him. The other hybrid was doing the same for Storm. Hammond's mind whirled. He said: "Thanks, boys. We sure--" He gasped, his fingers tightening on the hybrid's huge arm. The scraggy bearded face had been pushed back, revealing beneath the disguise Gena's beautiful features. "Come!" she said sharply, drawing forth a similar hybrid disguise from within the garment. "Get into this, Earthman. We have no time to lose. We must get away from here before Zuggoth returns." Hammond and Storm obeyed with alacrity. They got into the hybrid costumes Zuggoth's Sediphrons had used to plant themselves in Gena's ship. They padded out the huge left arm with a soft, cottonlike material they found in the laboratory. Ardiné helped them in the task. In the meantime Gena disappeared in a closet-like room at the far end of the laboratory. When she returned she held two strange-looking metal objects, like long, dull tubes with a dial face and a knob. She tucked these away under her costume without explaining. Ardiné, also, had been foraging. She came back to them with what seemed like two small flashlights. Her voice was hurried. "The size reducing and expanding ray guns. Perhaps we'll have use for them."