Caine knelt slowly, looking straight into the cat's eyes. It was about ten yards away. Caine turned to look at Fairchild. The man was on one knee, the rifle pointing at the cat's head. The woman waited behind him, half-crouched, holding her rifle tight against her side. Caine looked back to the cat, moving his head slowly. He could see the great swishing tail, moving back and forth, back and forth. Why doesn't the man shoot? Caine asked himself. Why is he waiting this way? Time halted. Caine edged his look back to Fairchild. You crazy fool, he thought. You have the rifle in your hands, you.... And then he saw the sweat dripping from the man's face, the staring eyes, drained of their focus by fear. The man's body was trembling, and Caine thought: he's going to drop the rifle out of his hands, he's.... * * * * * The woman screamed. "Kill him! Kill him--" The rifle exploded in her hands and bullets whined through the air. Caine felt a hot sting in his shoulder. And the cat was a roaring, crazed thing that swept through the air, a flash of shining blackness. The air came apart with the sound of the rifle and the screams of the woman and the roaring of the cat. Caine waited, as though this were a dream he was watching. The cat had leaped straight for the woman, and she was tangled with the black and white claws now, so that Caine saw only a rolling, screaming mass. Then there was no more sound from the woman, just a broken, bleeding body, and the cat was crouching again, the black coat stippled with red, the orange eyes wild. Caine blinked, realizing that Fairchild was sprawled beside him, a bullet through his head, his hands just touching his unfired rifle. I can't do it, Caine thought, looking at the rifle. Too slow. I'll have those claws in me before I can even touch it. The cat hugged closer to the ground, its muscles bunching. I'll try, Caine thought, and his hand was moving toward the rifle, slowly, like a floating feather, it seemed. Jump, he said silently to the cat. I can't do it. "Grith?" sounded a flute-like voice. The cat was motionless. "Grith?" The cat rose slowly and backed, tail swishing. Green hands slapped together, and the cat turned and disappeared. Caine placed his palms flat against the ground, propping himself, and watched the approaching figures. The mist seemed to be disappearing, and he could see more clearly the green skin and the large, unblinking eyes that looked out solemnly from beneath the hoods of the gray capes. _Priests?_ Caine wondered. _From the temple?_ I didn't know there were Venusians here, he said to himself, and although it was a very slight disclosure, as though he had suddenly learned that there were more men on Venus than women, he was astounded and impressed with it. "Well," he said, grinning up at them as they stopped beside him. "Well, well."