Cosmo gradually became aware of a jolting swaying movement. At each
jolt, a flash of pain shot across his eyes. He sat up, cracked his
skull against something solid. A blinding pain jolted him into full
consciousness.
He was in a cage, he saw, swung on poles like a litter between two of
the blue giants. They were jogging along through a forest.
At once he became aware of warmth along his side, twisted his head. Mia
was regarding him from wide frightened eyes. They'd been tumbled side
by side into the cage. The girl was almost naked, her yellow tunic in
tatters.
"You hurt?" he asked.
She shook her head.
He closed his eyes against the ache in his skull. If the pain would
only let up. His mind felt fuzzy, his thoughts incoherent.
"Whew. That brute sure gave me a wallop. What happened?"
He could feel Mia shiver against him. "It was dreadful," she said.
"They grabbed me--_ugh!_--and stuffed me in this cage. They had it
hidden outside on the trail from the Ormoo's nest. Then they dumped you
in on top of me like a bag of flour. I--I thought you were dead."
"So did I," said Cosmo dryly.
She regarded him dubiously, said: "They picked up the cage then and
began to run down the trail. They carried us over the most impossible
places, always down. I died with fright. Just a little while ago we
came out into the forest."
"I know the trail," he said. "Nothing but Jovian primitives could have
managed it. I wonder why Bemmelman didn't have me killed outright."
"Bemmelman?" Mia looked puzzled.
"Sure. They're his slaves. You saw the fern leaf brand on their
shoulders. We walked straight into a trap."
"But that's impossible. How could they have found your hideout?"
Cosmo shook his head and immediately regretted it. "One of my men must
be a spy. Bemmelman's shrewder than I've given him credit for being."
"A spy?" Mia's eyes grew round as saucers. "But why?"
"I don't know. Unless he's after that fifty thousand monad reward on
my head!" He frowned. "Bemmelman said something odd last night when he
caught me in his house. He said he'd been trying to get in touch with
me."
The blue giants swung effortlessly through the incredible forest. The
trees were like cathedral columns disappearing in the swirling cloud
blanket.
"You said we'd walked into a trap," insisted Mia. "How could Bemmelman
know when you'd get back. I don't understand."
Cosmo snorted. "Anybody could guess I'd head for my hideout after the
alarm at your place. Most likely, Bemmelman tipped that Judas of his by
radio when to expect me. The Dawn Men are animals. They hunt by scent.
That fellow must have given them a piece of my clothing, planted them
in the corridor. It was as simple as that."
"But what does Bemmelman want with me?" she wailed.
"Don't forget the Blue Venus. I told you he'd been trying to duplicate
that experiment."
"I don't believe it," said Mia in a shocked voice. "He wouldn't dare!
Would he?"
"What's to hinder him? At Venusport they'll think the Renegade abducted
you. Who'd suspect that the eminent Councillor Bemmelman had hijacked
me?"
"I don't believe it," she repeated indignantly. "You're just trying to
throw mud on him because you think he murdered your parents and stole
your plantation. It's--it's an obsession. You have no proof."
Cosmo regarded her with cloudy green eyes. "I had the Intersteller
Investigation Bureau dig out his past. I've a man in Bemmelman's
household right now. I know." He looked through the bars of the cage.
They were approaching the edge of the forest. He turned back, said:
"Something besides slave breeding is going on at Bemmelman's. There are
parts of the plantation where my man never has been able to penetrate."
"What do you think it is?" Mia's voice was a whisper.
"I don't know. But hasn't it occurred to you that slave breeding must
entail a slow turnover. A child isn't marketable until it's sixteen or
seventeen at least."
"What are you driving at?"
"Suppose Bemmelman has discovered some way to speed up growth--to
hasten maturity."
"An aging process? It's--it's impossible."