ree was trying to speak. Her throat worked. Her eyes were frantic.
Mike got her legs straightened out without sending her into screaming
pain. Now she was rising into a sitting position on her own power.

"Took--took--Fa--him--" she whispered hoarsely.

"Your father--where is he?"

"McKee--Talbott--took him!"

"Who in the hell are McKee and Talbott?"

Gradually, her throat unlocked. "They came in and took him--carried
him out."

"I asked you who they were."

Tears welled in her eyes. She bit her lower lip and tried to control
her fluttering throat. "I--I tried to scream. When they carried him
out I couldn't do a thing." She burst into tears.

She was normal again. Mike got to his feet. "I've got to check the
ship. When I get back I want some answers and you'd better have them
ready."

He hurried from the lounge and up the ladder, almost slamming into
Nicko as he gained the companionway. Nicko's scales were a sickly,
pale green. He tottered weakly on his stumpy legs using all four of
his arms to support himself against the bulkhead.

He grinned hideously. "Friends of yours?"

"I don't know who the hell they were. You all right?"

"I'm fine."

Mike scowled up and down the companionway. "What shape are we in?"

"Bad."

"How bad?"

"The worst. The pile's gone."

"The _pile_!"

Mike ran aft. The door to the tube cabin stood open. The alley into
which the fifteen-pound, lead-crated pile had lately been driven, was
empty.

* * * * *

Swiftly Mike assessed the situation. A helpless ship. A derelict.
They'd entered through the aft airlock. They'd taken Professor Brandon
off that way. Then they'd closed the lock again.

That meant only one thing. Through pure cruelty, they had avoided
swift death to the ship's occupant in favor of a long, lingering one.
Only the basest of men would do a thing like that.

Mike was not acquainted with McKee or Talbott, but he knew something
about them. They were the lowest type of the human species. Only the
bloodthirsty pirates of Ganymede ever made their victims walk space.

He returned to where Nicko was clinging to the companionway
guard-rail. Nicko said, "You haven't seen it all, yet."

"Is there more?"

"That's only the beginning. They smashed everything in the control
cabin. All the navigating instruments. Even if we had a pile this boat
couldn't find its way down Main Street at high noon."

It followed, Mike thought grimly.