rtain that he knew what had happened to
this patrolman.

He pushed himself erect and turned to see Glynnis, a dark figure but
obviously her, standing near a clump of trees a few feet off.

"You move quiet as a cat," he said. "You do this?"

"Uh-huh." She came forward and stared down at the corpse. Nelson was
glad he couldn't see her face in the darkness. "There were two of
them. They split up and I followed after this one and came up behind
him. I slit his throat. Then I went and got the other one the same
way."

And it had been so simple, thought Nelson. He handed Glynnis the extra
pack. "Take this." She accepted it wordlessly and slipped her arms
into the straps. "Oh," he added, as an afterthought. "Let me show you
something." He reached into the pack and drew out a knife. A good one
with a long plasteel blade that would not chip or corrode like hers.
He handed it to her and imagined her smiling face in the darkness.

"It doesn't feel like metal," she said, after she had taken the knife
from its scabbard.

"It isn't. It's a kind of plastic, stronger than most metals. Do you
like it?" He was wasting time, he knew, and he cursed himself for it.
But it didn't matter.

"It's real nice," she answered.

"I'm glad you like it," he said, taking her elbow in his hand. "We'd
better go now. They'll be after us."

They ran most of the night, although it wasn't always running. Nelson
picked a lot of terrain that was too uneven or too thickly covered
with growth for running. They kept to rocks and creekbeds as much as
they could, and they stopped only a few hours before dawn to get a few
hours sleep they were too exhausted to postpone any longer.

When Nelson awoke the sun was a little higher than he had wanted it to
be. He got to his feet and scanned the morning sky but saw nothing to
indicate sky patrol robots. He felt uneasy about not having made more
territory; but the way had been erratic and uneven. A thorough search
pattern could find him easily; the further away he got from the depot
the better chance he stood of not being discovered by a robot. He
wondered, briefly, just how many would be called out, but there was no
reason to wonder. Three patrolmen dead meant a lot of searching to
find the killers. He and Glynnis couldn't waste much time.

He nudged the still sleeping girl with his foot to wake her. She awoke
suddenly, her hand darting toward her new knife and a low but
startled cry came from her.

"Quiet