The twinkle returned to her green eyes. "You'll learn. Meanwhile you'd
better familiarize yourself with these passages." And she shut the
panel on him.
Joel spent the next week exploring the labyrinthine passages that ran
everywhere from the sub basement to the top floor. He emerged only to
eat or when Priscilla called him over the wrist radio.
From the serfs he heard echoes of what was taking place in the outside
world. Walt Eriss, he learned from Peg, had joined one of the outlaw
bands. He was being talked about constantly among the serfs.
A man of action, they called the ex-surgeon, brutal, ruthless, shrewd.
A strong man. Joel held his own counsel. But the reports worried him.
He was exploring between the walls on the ninth level when he came
to one of the trick mirrors and peered through. A long magnificent
corridor met his eye. Directly across from the mirror was a lift.
General Fredrik Roos had his quarters on this level, Joel knew, but the
hall was empty. He was about to turn away when the indicator light on
the elevator glowed faintly.
Someone was coming up.
The car stopped, the doors slid back. Joel frowned. There wasn't a soul
in the cage.
Then the doors shut and the cage dropped from sight.
Joel bit his lip. All at once, the indicator lit up again. The car was
ascending to the ninth floor once more.
Again the doors slid aside. But this time General Fredrik Roos stepped
briskly from the cage, turned left down the corridor.
The chief of the Asgardian police had taken only half a dozen steps,
though, when he halted. Joel could see his nostrils twitch. Then his
hand darted to the jeweled paralyzer at his waist. It was like a man
practicing a quick draw--shadow boxing.
Roos pointed the paralyzer at emptiness, pressed the stud. A dazzling
yellow beam lanced down the corridor, winked off.
Joel sucked in his breath. The misty outline of a body was
materializing on the floor just ahead of Roos!
There had been someone there--someone who'd been invisible until the
ray knocked him out!
"Ganelon!" Joel thought. He could see the shape of bare ivory legs and
a delicate waist. It was a girl lying huddled on the floor!
Roos had snatched up a heavy vase from a niche in the wall. He was
striding toward the unconscious Ganelon girl.
The ray only paralyzed; it didn't kill. Roos was going to murder the
spy, Joel realized. At that instant he recognized her.
It was Tamis Ravitz!