"In the second place, assuming that you do get to the spaceship and take
off before the police get here, it still won't matter. They _know_, now,
who has been operating the telenizer. They can track you down. You'll be
picked up long before you get to Mars." I stood up and strode
purposefully toward him. "Give me the blaster, dammit. You're licked
before you're even started."
Blekeke frowned and pointed the blaster at my chest. "Please. So fast
not so. Go back corner, please."
I obediently returned to the corner and sat down. It had been worth a
try.
The Martian lowered the weapon and smiled. "You too brave. I not like
kill. But pfoof for loop-hole. All plugged. Looking what front-door
camera see. Polices here now."
He pushed the button on the wall.
* * * * *
A police auto was screeching to a halt in the driveway before the big
house, and a half-dozen uniformed men, armed with deadly blasters, were
piling out. Another car was whipping around the final curve.
I knew that Maxwell was giving me a look of gratitude, but suddenly I
wasn't sure it was warranted. I had assumed on a sort of blind faith
that the police would get here in time--but as I watched the scene, I
didn't feel so good.
For the policemen were not charging the house. They were not even
looking at it.
They were milling around, aimlessly. No, not aimlessly, exactly. They
were looking _for_ something; but they weren't seeing it. One of them
got back in the car and used the radio, and the others wandered around,
glancing unseeingly in all directions.
"Mass telenosis?" I asked quietly, not taking my eyes from the scene,
feeling my heart pound harder as I caught a glimpse of the bobbing,
slower lights of another vehicle on the road far back.
Blekeke said, "Yups. Plug all loop-hole. Police not see house, not see
ship. No one see ship leave, not knowing Blekeke on board. Complete
vanish." He shrugged. "Ship keep commercial schedule. Take auxiliary
power to right course, then switch rocket. Stopped on way, maybe, so
what? Telenize searchers, yups?"
"What about the house?" I asked.
"Go boom when we leave," Blekeke said.
Maxwell said, "Judas! Everyone will just assume that we and Blekeke and
all the cultists have gone boom, too. That's likely to end the
investigation right there. Slow it down plenty, at least."