vine acknowledged,
"and all detectable trouble sources are covered by the selected Fleet
serum."

* * * * *

Dasinger said, "We'll prepare for an immediate landing then. There'll be
less than an hour of daylight left on the ground, but the night's so
short we'll disregard that factor." He switched off the connection to
Egavine's cabin, turned to Duomart. "Now our wrist communicators, you
say, have a five-mile range?"

"A little over five."

"Then," Dasinger said, "we'll keep you and the Cat stationed at an exact
five-mile altitude ninety-five per cent of the time we spend on the
planet. If the Spy arrives while you're up there, how much time will we
have to clear out?"

She shrugged. "That depends of course on how they arrive. My detectors
can pick the Spy up in space before their detectors can make out the Cat
against the planet. If we spot them as they're heading in, we'll have
around fifteen minutes.

"But if they show up on the horizon in atmosphere, or surface her out of
subspace, that's something else. If I don't move instantly then, they'll
have me bracketed ... and BLOOIE!"

Dasinger said, "Then those are the possibilities you'll have to watch
for. Think you could draw the Spy far enough away in a chase to be able
to come back for us?"

"They wouldn't follow me that far," Duomart said. "They know the Cat can
outrun them easily once she's really stretched out, so if they can't
nail her in the first few minutes they'll come back to look around for
what we were interested in here." She added, "And if I _don't_ let the
Cat go all out but just keep a little ahead of them, they'll know that
I'm trying to draw them away from something."

Dasinger nodded. "In that case we'll each be on our own, and your job
will be to keep right on going and get the information as quickly as
possible to the Kyth detective agency in Orado. The agency will take the
matter from there."

* * * * *

Miss Mines looked at him. "Aren't you sort of likely to be dead before
the agency can do anything about the situation?"

"I'll try to avoid it," Dasinger said. "Now, we've assumed the worst as
far as the Spy is concerned. But things might also go wrong downstairs.
Say I lose control of the group, or we all get hit down there by
whatever hit the previous landing parties and it turns out that kwil's
no good for it. It's understood that in any such event you again head
th