There was no answer.
"Eriss!" he repeated. The silence was explosive. No one breathed.
Joel craned his neck, looked up and down the line. The shaggy
ex-surgeon was conspicuously absent!
The colonel swore. He turned on an under-officer at his elbow. "That's
the man!" he said savagely. "Get his dossier and put his picture on the
televisor immediately!"
The under-officer sprinted from the room, almost collided with a man
entering the prison. Joel saw that it was the guard who'd been lying
unconscious outside the door. His white uniform was blood-spattered and
he was holding a handkerchief to his nose.
The colonel caught sight of him at the same time, asked in a cold
voice, "What happened to you?"
The guard looked unhappy. "This fellow called me to the door. He asked
to see you."
"See me?"
"Yes, sir. He said some of the prisoners were planning to escape. He
wouldn't tell me about it. I was taking him to you...."
"Why did you let him out? Why didn't you send for me?" The colonel's
voice was brittle as ice.
"He acted frightened, sir. Said they would kill him if he wasn't taken
out."
"I see. Then he hit you. Is that it?"
"Yes, sir. As I was locking the door after him. I dropped the
paralyzer. He snatched it and turned it on me. I don't remember
anything else." The guard hesitated. "Did he get away, sir?"
"Yes. From the roof. Helicopter." The colonel turned on his heel,
marched from the room. The guards withdrew.
Joel could hear the wailing screams of sirens rising all over the city.
"But where can he escape to?" Joel asked.
Tamis gave him a sober glance, lowered her voice. "There are half
a dozen bands of escaped serfs in the jungle. My people have been
protecting them. He may be able to join them--if the nigel trees don't
get him first."