the dim, dusty corridor, two marsuits under his arm,
straining futilely toward a place he could not reach. And now he
actually heard, with his ears, the muted vibration above him as the
copter's engines roared to life.

Dark started running.

He dropped the marsuits, and ran down the corridor. He leaped up the
stairs, two and three at a time. Breathless, his heart pounding, he
staggered down the upper corridor and impatiently went through the
seemingly interminable process of negotiating the airlock.

He emerged into the big room.

It was empty.

The ceiling was open to the Martian sky. The sunlight poured into the
roofless room.

In the sky, a small, teetering object rose and moved away from Ultra
Vires, its blades whirring a sparkling circle in the thin air.

Dark reached out to it with his mind, and again he was in the copter.
Nuwell sat tensely at the controls, guiding it. Maya was in the other
seat, her arms bound down by her sides, her expression agonized.

Nuwell was unaware of Dark's mental presence. Maya sensed it and her
mind turned toward him.

_Dark, Dark, what can we do? I should have been watching for him. I
should have known, after he saw us together, that he would do
something._

Dark: _It was my fault, Maya. I shouldn't have left you alone. I just
didn't consider him a factor to be reckoned with, and I should have
known better._

Maya: _What can we do?_

Nuwell turned to Maya, and his face was bitter and sullen. His brown
eyes were flat with anger.

"You treacherous witch, I should have known better than to trust you
after that trick of trying to help Kensington escape. I wanted to give
you a chance, because I thought that, with him dead, you might have
recovered from your madness," he said.

A change came over his face: a mixture of fear, disbelief and utter lack
of comprehension.

"He _was_ dead," said Nuwell, a hysterical note underlying his tone. "I
saw him. You saw him dead, too, didn't you, Maya? How could he be back
there with you?"

Maya's only answer was a defiant smile.

"There's some explanation for this," said Nuwell, more positively. "I
don't know what it is, but I'll find it. That man back there isn't Dark
Kensington, because Kensington's dead. Maya, I promise you, I'm going to
find out what the answer is, but first I'm going to make sure that you
don't cause me any more trouble."

Dark touched Maya's mind.

_Maya, I'm going to try something here._

He moved b