"No." She looked puzzled, then her brown eyes widened in comprehension. "The Ring! But they're helping to rescue him." "Why not? They're getting paid by both sides. You heard Thorpe admit that they'd sold the space drive to every one of the seven countries." "No. I can't believe it, Clyde." She bit her lip. "They're not like that. Not really." "Rubbish." The girl's face had grown very white. "You won't let me down, Clyde. You'll get father out, whatever you do?" He opened his nictitating lids, peered through the wall into the embassy. There were two women in the swimming pool. The sleeping chamber was empty. So was the hallway. He said, "Yes." Then, "Check the route. This is it." He heard her gasp. Then she began to talk hurriedly into a tiny radio strapped about her wrist. Vickers looked up and down through the various floors of the embassy next door, checking the position of the guard details, the officials and their families. It was going to be tricky, he saw, a matter of split second timing. He got up and examined the sleek air taxi. It was a transparent plastic tear drop and filled a fourth of the room. One outer wall of the room had been removed outright. It had been simulated with cloth flats like stage props so that it looked normal enough from the outside. But when the time arrived, the air taxi could burst right through it into the street. The Ring was thorough, Vickers had to admit. And ruthlessly efficient. He said: "Get in the taxi and start the motor. Tell them we'll crack out of here in exactly fifteen minutes." He heard her catch her breath and wheeled on her suddenly. "What's wrong?" he demanded sharply. "Good Lord, don't go into a funk now!" "Hold it!" she said, the radio to her ear. He saw the blood drain out of her face as she listened. Then she clicked it off, turned frightened eyes on him. "It's your double." Her voice sounded lifeless. "The ISP has discovered the substitution. They have the net out for you now. You couldn't get a block without being caught." Vickers could feel his stomach knot with shock. He stared at her, his blazing eyes probing straight through her. Anywhere else in the system, he might have been able to escape. But Luna City! It was like a hermetically-sealed gold fish bowl with the ISP blocking all the exits. Sooner or later they'd dig him out. Sterilization and a life sentence to the Jupiter Penal Mines! There was no leniency shown third offenders, no matter how minor the infraction. He got a grip on himself with an effort. "Tell them," he said to the girl, "we'll crack out of here according to schedule." Her mouth made a soundless O. "Get in the taxi and start the motor," he said with a grim sparkle of humor. "I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb!" "But how'll we slip through the ISP net?" Tani protested.