'd like to slip a set of cuffs on you for just a few minutes. I've
been informed you're a fairly tricky lady, and we don't want you to do
anything thoughtless. You won't have them on very long. All right?"

Trigger bit her lip. It wasn't all right, and she didn't feel at all
reassured so far.

"Go ahead," she said.

He let go of her left arm, presumably to reach for the handcuffs. She
twisted around on him and went into fast action.

She was fairly proficient at the practice of unarmed mayhem. The trouble
was that the big ape she was trying the stuff on seemed at least as
adept and with twice her muscle. She lost a precious instant finding out
that the Denton was no longer in her robe pocket. After that she never
got back the initiative. It didn't help either that the car suddenly
seemed to be trying to fly in three directions at once.

All in all, about forty seconds passed before she was plumped back on
the seat, her hands behind her again, linked at the wrists by the smooth
plastic cords of the cuffs. The ape stood behind the driver, his hands
resting on the back of the seat. He wasn't, Trigger observed bitterly,
even breathing hard. The view plate was full of the cottony whiteness of
a cloud heart. They seemed to be dropping again.

One more violent swerve and they came flashing out into wet gray
cloud-shadow and on into brilliant sunlight.

A few seconds passed. Then the ape remarked, "Looks like you lost them,
chum."

"Right," said the driver. "Almost at the river now. I'll turn north
there and drop down."

"Right," said the ape. "Get us that far and we'll be out of trouble."

A few minutes passed in silence. Presently Trigger sensed they were
slowing and losing altitude. Then a line of trees flashed by in the view
plate. "Nice flying!" the ape said. He punched the driver approvingly in
the shoulder and turned back to Trigger.

They looked at each other for a few seconds. He was tall, dark-eyed,
very deeply tanned, with thick sloping shoulders. He probably wasn't
more than five or six years older than she was. He was studying her
curiously, and his eyes were remarkably steady. Something stirred in her
for a moment, a small chill of fear. Something passed through her
thoughts, a vague odd impression, like a half aroused memory, of huge,
cold, dangerous things far away. It was gone before she could grasp it
more clearly. She frowned.

The ape smiled. It wasn't, Trigger saw, an entirely unpleasant face.