A black shape put on a burst of speed, was silhouetted against that flaming wall, then passed the spacer, grabbed at the open cockpit, and slid in behind the controls. Hume pulled the levers with flying fingers. They arose vertically at a pace which practically slapped Vye's stomach up into the lower regions of his throat. The searing line of at least one blaster reached after them--too slowly, too low. He heard Hume grunt, and they again leaped higher. Then the Hunter spoke: "Half an hour at the most--" "The safari camp? "Yes." They no longer climbed. The flitter was boring forwards on a projectile flight, into the dark of the night. "What're those?" Vye suddenly leaned forward. Had some of the stars across the space void broken free from their fixed orbits? Flecks of light, moving in an arc, headed towards the speeding flitter. Hume hit a button. Again they arose in a violent leap above those wandering lights. But ahead on this new level more such dots flocked, moving fast to close in on the flyer. "A straight ram course," Hume muttered, more to himself than Vye. Again the flyer drove forward in a rising thrust of speed. Then the smooth purr of the propulsion unit faltered, broke into protesting coughs. Hume worked over the controls, beads of sweat showing on his forehead and cheek in the gleam of the cabin light. "Deading--deading out!" He brought the flitter around in a wide circle, the purr smoothed out once more in a steady reassuring beat. "Out run them!" But Vye feared they were back again on the losing side of a struggle with the unknown alien power. As they had been herded along the river, so now they were being pushed across the sky, towards the mountains. The enemy had followed them aloft! Some core of stubborn will in Hume would not yet allow him to admit that. Time and time again he climbed higher--always to meet climbing, twisting, spurting lines of lights which reacted on the engine of the flitter and threatened it with complete failure. Where they were now in relation to Wass' camp or that of the safari, Vye had no idea, and he guessed that Hume could not be too certain. Hume switched on the flitter's com unit, tried a channel search until he picked up a click of signal--the automatic reply of the safari camp. His fingertip beat out in return the danger warning, then the series of code sounds to give an edited version of what must be guarded against. "Wass has a man in your camp. His skin is in just as much danger as the rest. He may not relay it to the Patrol, but he'll keep the force barrier up and the civs inside--anything else would be malicious neglect and a murder charge when the Guild check tape goes in. This call is on the spacer tape now and will be a part of that--he can't possibly alter such a report and he knows it. This is the best we can do now--" "We're close to the mountains, aren't we?"