"Yes. Willata's Fleet was a legitimate outfit up to four years ago. Then
Liu Taunus and Calat and their gang took over. That happened to be the
two Fleet bosses you slapped handcuffs on, Dasinger. We're a Gray Fleet
now. So I had some plans of my own for this trip. If I can get to some
other I-Fleet or to the Hub, I might be able to do something about
Taunus. After we were down on the planet, I was going to steal the
Mooncat and take off by myself."
"Why are you telling me?"
Miss Mines colored a little. "Well, you gave me the gun," she said. "And
you clobbered Taunus, and got me out of that hypno thing ... I mean, I'd
have to be pretty much of a jerk to ditch you now, wouldn't I? Anyway,
now that I've told you, you won't be going back to Willata's Fleet,
whatever you do. I'll still get to the Hub." She paused. "So what do you
want to do now? Beat it until the coast's clear, or make a quick try for
your loot before the Spy gets there?"
"How far is she behind us?" Dasinger asked.
Duomart said, "I don't know exactly. Here's what happened. When we
started out, Taunus told me not to let the Mooncat travel at more than
three-quarters speed for any reason. I figured then the Spy was involved
in whatever he was planning; she can keep up with us at that rate, and
she has considerably better detector reach than the Cat. She's stayed
far enough back not to register on our plates throughout the trip.
"Late yesterday we hit some extensive turbulence areas, and I started
playing games. There was this little cluster of three sun systems ahead.
One of them was our target, though Dr. Egavine hadn't yet said which. I
ducked around a few twisters, doubled back, and there was the Spy coming
the other way. I beat it then--top velocity. The Spy dropped off our
detectors two hours later, and she can't have kept us on for more than
another hour herself.
"So they'll assume we're headed for one of those three systems, but
they don't know which one. They'll have to look for us. There's only one
terraprox in the system we're going to. There may be none in the others,
or maybe four or five. But the terraprox worlds is where they'll look
because the salvage suits you're carrying are designed for ordinary
underwater work. After the way I ran from them, they'll figure
something's gone wrong with Taunus's plans, of course."
* * * * *
Dasinger rubbed his chin. "And if they're lucky and follow us straight
in to the planet?"
"Then," Miss Mines said, "you might still have up to six or seven hours
to locate the stuff you want, load it aboard and be gone again."
"Might have?"
She shrugged. "We've got a lead on them, but just how big a lead we
finally wind up with depends to a considerable extent on the flight
conditions they run into behind us. They might get a break there, too.
Then there's another very unfortunate thing. The system Dr. Egavine's
directed us to now is the one we were closest to when I broke out of
detection range. They'll probably decide to look there first. You see?"
"Yes," Dasinger said. "Not so good, is it?" He knuckled his jaw again
reflectively. "Why was Taunus pounding around on you when I came
forward?"
"Oh, those two runches caught me flying the ship at top speed. Taunus
was furious. He couldn't know whether the Spy still had a fix on us or
not. Of course he didn't tell me that. The lumps he was preparing to
hand out were to be for disregarding his instructions. He does things
like that." She paused. "Well, are you going to make a try for the
planet?"
"Yes," Dasinger said. "If we wait, there's entirely too good a chance
the Spy will run across what we're after while she's snooping around for
us there. We'll try to arrange things for a quick getaway in case our
luck doesn't hold up."