A MacMillan flared and missed, a vortex rolled upwards too slow by half, another MacMillan missed, and then Guy was off and far away and free once more. He grinned. They'd left him his personal thought-beam instrument. They'd find it hard to run him down when he could read their minds. He turned the gain a little lower so that they couldn't read his, and he wondered whether the more powerful instrument would really be destroyed now. * * * * * An hour later, along near the ocean's edge, Guy dropped the flier. "Charalas," he said, offering a hand, "I'm sorry." "You're in a real mess," said the neuro-surgeon. "I know--but what's Ertene going to do now?" He snapped on the flier-radio and caught Thomakein in the act of speaking: "--obviously came at the call of the impostor. He was a high official in the Patrol, and was working undercover here. People of Ertene, we must reply! We may not hold up our heads until this insult has been repaid. We now have a fine space fleet, thanks to the vortex and the pressors, and the Terrans. Never could we have built such a fleet here on Ertene; but it is now ours." Guy growled and snapped Thomakein off. "What are your plans?" asked Charalas. "I'm going to drop you off here. Then I'm going somewhere." "Where?" "That's it. I don't know where. I'm barred from everything but Mars--I might try there." "You loved Ertene, didn't you?" asked Charalas. Guy nodded. "Until I found out how blind they are. A fine thing! They give credence to a plotter because his accuser is not of Ertene. And this last--I hate them and him!" "This last?" "Thomakein dropped the barrier so that the Terrans would come to investigate. He planned it all--and got his fleet ready-made." "They came to fight--" "They wouldn't have come if Thomakein hadn't started it all. Blame whom you will, but Thomakein saw his plan start when he found me alive in the _Mardinex_. My life has been just a pusharound for Thomakein for nine years." "You think Ertene will win?" "Thomakein may be highly successful for a long time--but Terra will win," said Guy. "Remember, Charalas, when you strike a rat, the rat bites back. That slaughter of Terrans back there is just nasty enough to make Terra completely mad. It happened before, on Mephisto III, and when we cooled down to the mere screaming point, there wasn't a living thing on Mephisto proper. Berserk, is the word for angry Terrans, Charalas. And I say Beware." "And you?" "Me, I'd like to push something around. I'm getting sick of being a pawn. I've reached the last straw, Charalas, and something's going to be crowned. That utter murder of Terrans just about broke me, and if I break completely, I'll take after Ertene single-handed." "Slaughter?" asked Charalas. "It was downright murder. If I only had an army." "That's not murder. Ertene seldom kills."