Still no alarm! They burst out of the corridor into an enormous hall, crossed it swiftly, ducked down another passage. Damn place was a rat run. Fralick was panting. "Hold out, old man!" Vickers thought. "Hold out!" Still no alarm. They were going to make it. They had to-- All the bells in the world seemed to cut loose at once! * * * * * Vickers jumped as if he'd been shot. Fralick clutched his chest. For a moment Vickers was afraid the scientist would pass out. The bell rang frenziedly. Hundreds of bells! Everywhere. Bells and shouts and trampling feet. Through the misty walls Vickers could see running soldiers, frightened officials, women and children. A vast terrifying pandemonium like a disturbed ant nest--like a glass ant colony kept for observation. Then the doors began to whoosh shut. Automatic doors closing off the passages. Blocking escape! One rammed shut just behind them. A party of guards caught sight of them. Steel jacketed bullets ricocheted and whined down the corridor. Vickers threw a gas grenade. The guards were blotted out by a fountain of pale green mist. It wasn't deadly, but it would knock out the Arabs, close off the passage temporarily. Fralick was sobbing for breath. Suddenly Vickers grabbed him by the shoulder. "Here! This way! Through the harem." With the atomic knife he freed the door which he'd sealed a few minutes before. A few minutes! He glanced at his watch. Eighteen minutes exactly; it seemed like hours! He was over his time. He put his shoulder to the door, threw it back with a crash. There was a cluster of frightened women in the corridor. When they saw Vickers and Fralick, they began to scream and fled screaming like chickens from a hawk. Vickers paid no attention to them, but rushed to the bedroom where he had cut through the wall. Kicking out the segment he almost hurled Fralick through the opening. Tani was waiting in the air taxi with the door open. A white, strained Tani with a face like a mask. "Dad," she cried. Fralick tumbled into the taxi. Vickers started to shut the door, but Tani held it open. "Get in," she begged in a tight voice. "Quick!" "No," he said. "The ISP would spot me in that air taxi and stop us. You can get through all right by yourselves." Consternation mirrored itself on Tani's waxen features. She shook her head. "We're not going without you." "Yes, you are!" he said; "no time to explain. I'll meet you at the blue door." She was almost in tears. "Clyde, we're not going to leave you behind!" Through the gaping hole in the wall behind them, Vickers could hear the sounds of pursuit closing in, but he didn't look around. "You little fool!" he said brutally, "do you want to get me killed? Do what I say. This is my kind of work!" Suddenly she leaned from the air taxi, kissed him hard on the mouth. Her eyes were wet. "I'll be waiting," she said, catching her breath; "you crazy Quixotic idiot. I'll wait forever."