As they moved away from the building Kartr turned his attention to the driver. That bristling shock of black hair with its odd brindling of brown showed up clearly as they swept beneath one of the banners of city light — the long jaws, too. So — that was why Cummi let them go off alone! No wonder he had not thought it necessary to accompany them himself. He would be with them in one way if not bodily. Their driver was a Can-hound, the perfect servant whose mind was only a receiving set used for the benefit of his master.
Kartr's skin roughened as if something slimy trailed across him. He had the sensitive's inborn horror for the creature before him — a thing he would not dignify as either human or Bemmy. And now he would have to — have to — ! The very thought made him so sick that his empty stomach twisted. This was the worst, the lowest task he had ever had forced upon him. He would have to go into that mind, skillfully enough not to be detected by the distant master, and there implant some false memories —
"Which way?" Even that voice rasped sickeningly along his nerves.
"Along this wide street here," he ordered with stiff lips. His hand closed over Rolth's. The Faltharian did not move but he answered with a light return pressure.
Kartr began, while his mouth twisted into a tortured ring of disgust and his mind and body alike fought wildly against the will which forced him to do this thing. It was worse than he had expected, he was degraded, soiled unspeakably by that contact. But he went on. Suddenly the car pulled to the side of the street, wavered into an open space between buildings, came to a stop in a courtyard. They remained in it while Kartr fought the miserable battle to the end. That came when the Can-hound's head fell forward and he slumped limply in the driver's seat.
Rolth got out. But Kartr had to steady himself with his hands as he followed. He reeled across the court and hung retching on a window sill. Then Rolth reached him and steadied his shaking body. With the Faltharian's arm still around him, the sergeant wavered out on the street.
"Just ahead — " Kartr got out the words painfully between spasms of sickness.
"Yes, I have seen."
The faint gleam of radiation was undoubtedly clearer to Rolth's light-sensitive eyes than it was to his own. They were about four blocks now from the point where the robot had fired at the doorway. And from there they could easily find their marked trail back to the sled.
Rolth asked no questions. He was there, a hand ready to support, a vast comforting glow of clean friendship. Clean — ! Kartr wondered if he would ever feel clean again. How could a sensitive — even an Ageratan — deal with and through a creature such as that? But he mustn't think of the Can-hound now.
He was walking steadily again by the time they detoured around the nuclear fire in the doorway. And he turned the walk into a ground-covering lope as the Faltharian retraced the trail he had earlier marked. When they got to the sled Kartr made a single suggestion.
"Lay a crossed course out of here — they may have some sort of scanner on us — "
Rolth grunted an assent. The sled took to the air. A cold wind, heralding the dawn, cut into them. Kartr wanted to wash in it, wash away the filth of the encounter with the Can-hound.
"You do not want them to know about us?" That was half question, half statement.
"It isn't up to me — that's Jaksan's problem," returned Kartr, out of a vast and overwhelming weariness. The drain of that mind battle had almost meant a drain of life force too. He wanted to lie down and sleep, just sleep. But he couldn't. And he forced himself to give Rolth an explanation of what they had been pitted against — what they might have to fear in the future.
"That driver was a Can-hound. And there is something very wrong — completely wrong back there."
Rolth might not be a sensitive but as a ranger he knew a lot. He snapped out a biting word or two in his own tongue.
"I had to get into his mind — to make him a set of false memories. He will report back that he took us to the sled, certain things we were supposed to have said during the trip — the direction in which we departed — "
"So that was what you were doing!" Rolth's dark eyes lifted from the course indicator long enough to favor his companion with a look in which respect and awe were mingled.
Kartr relaxed, his head drooped to rest on the back of the seat. Now that they were out of the glare of the city the stars shone palely overhead. How was Jaksan going to handle this? Would he order them in to unite with the castaways in the city? If so — what about Cummi? What was he doing — planning right now?
"You distrust the Ageratan?" Rolth demanded as they streaked north on the evasive path Kartr had suggested.
"He is an Ageratan — you know them. He is a Vice-Sector Lord, there is no doubt he is in complete command in the city. And — he would not take kindly to having his rule disputed — "
"So he might not be in favor of the Patrol?"
"Maybe. Sector Lords are uneasy enough nowadays — there is a pull and tug of power. I would like very much to know why he was making a trip on an ordinary passenger ship anyway. If he — "
"Were getting away from some local hot spot he would be only too glad to found a new kingdom here? Yes, that I can well understand," said Rolth. "Now we go home — "
The sled made a long curve to the right. Rolth shut off the propulsion rockets, kept on only the hover screens. They drifted slowly on the new course. It would take time, add an extra hour or so to their return journey. But unless the city had something new in scanners they were now off every spy screen.
They did very little talking for the rest of the trip. Kartr dozed off once and awoke with a start from a black dream. The need for complete rest drugged his mind when he tried to flog his weary brain into making plans. He would report the situation to Jaksan. The arms officer was hostile to the impressions of a sensitive — he might not welcome Kartr's description of the unease in the city. And the sergeant had no proof to back his belief that the farther they stayed away from Cummi the better. Why did he fear Cummi? Was it because he was an Ageratan, another sensitive? Or was it because of the Can-hound? Why was he so sure that the Vice-Sector Lord was a dangerous enemy?
7. The Rangers Stand Together
"You must admit that his account was plausible enough — "
Kartr faced Jaksan across the flat rock which served the camp as a table.
"And the city," persisted the arms officer mercilessly, "is in an excellent state of preservation. Not only that, but this party from the X451 includes mech-techneers who have been able to start it functioning again — "
The sergeant nodded wearily. He should have brought to this contest of will a clear mind and a rested body. Instead he ached with both mental and physical fatigue. It was an effort to hold his stand against the hammering disapproval of the other.
"If all this is true" — Jaksan reached what he certainly believed to be a logical and sensible conclusion — for the third time — "I cannot understand this reluctance of yours, Kartr. Unless — " he was radiating hostility again but the sergeant was almost too tired to care — "unless you have taken a dislike to this Ageratan for personal reasons." Then he paused and his hostility was broken for an instant by an emotion close to sympathy. "Wasn't it an Ageratan who gave the order to burn off Ylene?"
"It might have been for all I know. But that is not the reason why I distrust this Joyd Cummi," began Kartr with such remnants of patience as he could muster.
There was no use in making an issue of Cummi's use of the Can-hound. Only another sensitive could understand the true horror of that. Jaksan had settled on an explanation for Kartr's attitude which was reasonable to him and he would hold to it. The sergeant had learned long ago that those who were not sensitives had a deep distrust of perception and the mind touch and some refused to even admit its existence as a fact. Jaksan was almost of that group — he would believe in Kartr's ability to meet and deal with animals and strange non-humans, but he inwardly repudiated the sergeant's being able to contact or read his fellow men. There was no arguing with him on that point. Kartr sighed. He had done what he could to prevent what he knew would be Jaksan's next move. Now he could only wait for the menace he believed was in the city to show itself.