e aside. "Drop that
or I shoot," she said.

Dalgetty snatched up a gun for himself, leveling it at the door. He
more than half expected those outside to come rushing in, expected
hell would explode. But the thick oak panels must have choked off
sound.

Slowly, the man behind the chair let his rifle fall to the floor. His
mouth was stretched wide with supernatural fear.

"My God!" Dr. Tighe's long form was erect, shaking, his calm broken
into horror. "Simon, the risk...."

"We didn't have anything to lose, did we?" Dalgetty's voice was thick
but the abnormal energy was receding from him. He felt a surge of
weariness and knew that soon the payment must be made for the way he
had abused his body. He looked down at the corpse before him. "I
didn't mean to do that," he whispered.

Tighe collected himself with an effort of disciplined will and stepped
over to Bancroft. "He's alive, at least," he said. "Oh my God, Simon!
You could have been killed so easily."

"I may yet. We aren't out of the woods by any means. Find something to
tie these two others up with, will you, Dad?"

The Englishman nodded. Elena's slugged guard was stirring and
groaning. Tighe bound and gagged him with strips torn from his tunic.
Under the submachine-gun the other submitted meekly enough. Dalgetty
rolled them behind a sofa with the one he had slain.

Bancroft was wakening too. Dalgetty located a flask of bourbon and
gave it to him. Clearing eyes looked up with the same terror. "Now
what?" mumbled Bancroft. "You can't get away--"

"We can damn well try. If it had come to fighting with the rest of
your gang we'd have used you as a hostage but now there's a neater
way. On your feet! Here, straighten your tunic, comb your hair. Okay,
you'll do just as you're told, because if anything goes wrong we'll
have nothing at all to lose by shooting you." Dalgetty rapped out his
orders.

* * * * *

Bancroft looked at Elena and there was more than physical hurt in his
eyes. "Why did you do it?"

"FBI," she said.

He shook his head, still stunned, and shuffled over to the desk
visiphone and called the hangar. "I've got to get to the mainland in a
hurry. Have the speedster ready in ten minutes. No, just the regular
pilot, nobody else. I'll have Dalgetty with me but it's okay. He's on
our side now."

They went out the door. Elena cradled her tommy-gun under one arm.
"You can go back to the barracks, boys," said Bancrof