"That's possible. But it isn't a good enough reason for splitting up.
We're a working team, and we should stay together, regardless of
circumstances. What do you say, Rane?"

Her husband said, "I agree with you." He smiled briefly at Halder.
"We'll be waiting for you on the north shore of Lake Senla ten minutes
before the Starlight Cruise lifts. Now, is there anything else to
discuss?"

"Not at the moment." Halder paused, dissatisfied, then went on. "All
right. We still don't know just what the Federation is capable of ...
one move might as easily be wrong as the other. We'll pick you up, as
arranged. Kilby and I are flighthiking on to Senla, so we might as well
start immediately."

They went into the second room of the underground hideout. Rane turned
to the exit portal's controls, asked, "Where shall I let you out?"

"We'll take the river exit," Halder said. "Six miles from here, nine
from the ranch ... that should be far enough. We'll be lost in an army
of vacationers from Draise and the capital thirty seconds after we
emerge."

* * * * *

It was dusk when Halder and Kilby turned into the crowded shore walk of
the lake resort of Senla, moving unhurriedly towards a bungalow Halder
had bought under another name some months before. Halder's thoughts went
again over the details of the final stage of their escape from Orado.
Essentially, the plan was simple. An hour from now they would slide
their small star cruiser out of the bungalow's yacht stall, pick up Rane
and Santin on the far shore of the lake, then join the group of thirty
or so private yachts which left the resort area nightly for a two-hour
flight to a casino ship stationed off the planet. A group cruise was
unlikely to draw official scrutiny even tonight; and after reaching the
casino, they should be able to slip on unobserved into space.

There was, however, no way of knowing with certainty that the plan ...
or any other plan ... would work. It was only during the past few months
that the four of them had begun to understand in detail the extent to
which the vast, apparently loose complex of the Federation's worlds was
actually organized. How long they had been under observation, how much
the Federation suspected or knew about them--those questions were, at
the moment, unanswerable. So Halder walked on in alert silence, giving
his attention to anything which might be a first indication of danger in
the crowds surging