The fake was wearing thin. Now we found Neanderthals on their feet, puzzled and still frightened, but beginning to wonder why they were able to stand at all if we were in flight. Now we found enemies who, if given the chance, shot back. Now it was no pogrom, but a war. Yet gradually we worked our way through the wheel, and although two of our scientists dropped, we had surprise and luck with us. I came to a door that I could not open. Tucking the gun under my arm--I had long ago run out of ammo for the first, and found myself another in the grasp of an Old Companion with a scarlet smear for a face--I hurled my shoulder against the thick steel of the panel. It opened grudgingly. What had held it was the corpse of a Neanderthal. I had come full circle, not even noticing that I had passed through the control room and the chamber where Cuff and Skagarach should have been lying. The Old Companions were dead or dying, those of this muster at least, but the two most dangerous had vanished. I made sure that Howard was armed. The last two scientists had now joined us. I sent the three of them back along our bloody route, and with Nessa held protectively against my side I went forward, scouting cautiously and examining every compartment. I met Howard on the opposite side of the wheel. We had not found Bill Cuff nor the yellow-haired fox. CHAPTER XII "They couldn't have left the station," said Howard again. We were sitting in the red-spangled recreation room, avoiding the sight of the Neanderthal bodies by looking at one another, and drinking whiskey and water that my brother had produced from a wall compartment. "No," he said, as I started to protest, "I tell you I locked the outer door when you all came in, throwing the switch that's camouflaged beside it, and nobody but one of my own men could possibly have discovered it. Besides, if they'd gone out, the door would be open. You can't close it from the outside." "But I checked every hiding place--" "Ray," he said gently, "you couldn't check every one in less than an hour. You can't even see most of them." "Judas priest! Then we're locked in with those two--and outside there are Lord knows how many more, whimpering for our blood!" "As for those outside," said my brother slowly, "we could blow them up--while nothing short of an atomic explosion could break into the wheel." "How could we blow them up?" "I showed you. The atom cannons, the weapons that were meant to repel any hypothetical enemy attack when the station is freewheeling in space. There are gun ports on every curve, Ray." He sighed. "Two hours ago I was a peaceable man, I was here because I loved peace above everything else. Now I want to keep on killing people." "They aren't people, they're cave beasts. They admit to being non-human." "Yes. They make a good case for it, too. But it's too much like shooting sitting ducks, or fish in a barrel, for my taste."