to be unleashed, and it leaped forward, down the hall and out the front
door into the night.

Trent held the leash tightly in his hands, running behind the straining
dog, jumping over a low hedge after the animal as it headed down the
shadowed street to the edge of the city.

And then the last house was behind them and Trent was racing behind the
dog out into the desert land beyond.

* * * * *

His breath was an aching fire in his throat. His legs were numbed beyond
feeling. They were parts of his body that simply refused to stop moving,
though every nerve and muscle in them screamed in protest.

It seemed like he had been running for hours, half tripping, stumbling
across the darkened ground behind the seemingly tireless body of the
Great Dane.

They ran in near silence now. Only the sounds of their labored breathing
mingled with the night wind. The howls of rage no longer issued from the
throat of the huge dog. There was only its panting breath, and the
strain of its mighty body as it sought to tear loose from the man
holding it.

But Trent held grimly to the leash, running as fast as his numbed body
would go.

And he knew he could not go much further. That soon he would drop to the
ground in exhaustion. That his last reserve of energy was nearly spent.

And then his eyes peered through the darkness ahead and he saw a glow of
lights in the distance. And suddenly he knew those lights. And he became
aware of where they were racing toward.

It was the Rocket Proving Grounds!

And the fence of the government project loomed close ahead.

And as they neared the fence, Trent's eyes pierced the darkness and he
saw a jagged tear in the metal mesh of the fence. A tear that stood as
high as a man, a hole through which a man could have entered.

The Great Dane bounded toward that hole and Trent followed the dog
through it. He felt the animal pause momentarily and he nearly stumbled
over a body lying on the ground at his feet just inside the fence.

His heart stood still for a moment and the girl's name sped to his lips.
But he never uttered the word. For he suddenly saw that it was the body
of a guard. A body whose torn throat lay red and gory in death.

And then the Great Dane let a howl of anger out on the night wind, and
the beast leaped forward again, Trent running behind it.

And ahead of them, Trent saw a great looming shape in the darkness, and
as his eyes fell upon it, a