"What d'you mean?" The red-faced planter looked faintly rattled. He
took a threatening step.
"You kick me again," said Cosmo, "and I'll kill you if I have to bite
you to death."
Mia giggled nervously.
"Well?" said Bemmelman. "That's my proposition. Take it or leave it."
"What about me?" asked Cosmo.
"You're worth fifty thousand monad on the hoof, Cosmo. Yes sir. I'm
going to turn you and your men over to the Security Patrol."
"Suppose I talk?"
"Talk?" Bemmelman threw back his head and roared. "Talk d'you say?
Who'll believe anything the Renegade says?"
"A nice point," Cosmo conceded dryly. "But what about Mia?"
"Miss MacIver? What can she tell? Aren't you forgetting, Cosmo, that I
rescued her from you. Yes sir. What's more, I've captured you, and I'm
turning you over to the officials." His eyes twinkled. "Who's she going
to tell, anyway?"
Cosmo's lean visage was unreadable. So that, he thought, was the line
Bemmelman planned to take. Only Mia MacIver would never be released.
He wondered if the planter really considered him such a fool. He said:
"You don't give me much choice," and twisted to his feet. He hobbled to
the desk, dropped awkwardly into the chair. "Give me pen and paper."
Bemmelman produced writing material, spread them before him.
"Here's the Cloud Mountains." Hindered by the manacles, Cosmo sketched
a chain of hills, indicated north with a crude compass. He placed a dot
halfway into the mountains, then laid off a line from the dot running
diagonally into the most rugged sector. He shoved the paper across to
Bemmelman. "The first dot's the Ormoo's nest. You know where it is?"
Bemmelman nodded, wrote "Ormoo's nest" on the map.
Cosmo closed his eyes, sighed faintly. "The mountains are impassable
except by plane, and then its all blind flying. Rise to an altitude of
four thousand meters. You'll clear any peaks that way. Starting at the
Ormoo's nest, fly due North, Northwest for a distance of ninety-three
kilometers." He paused.
* * * * *
Only the scrape of Bemmelman's pen could be heard as the planter wrote
the directions on the bottom of the map.
"Drop straight into the valley," Cosmo went on as the pen scratching
ceased. "It's narrow, a canyon. The floor of the valley is at an
altitude of one thousand, seven hundred meters, so you'll be in clouds
all the time. It's tricky navigating."
Bemmelman stopped writing, waved the paper dry. Then he folded it, put
it away in the wall safe, behind the sliding panel. "This had better be
right," he said ominously.
Cosmo, opening his eyes, said: "It's right. I've been there a dozen
times. The first time the bird carried me there accidentally before he
was well trained."
"Good." Bemmelman glanced at his watch. "Now Cosmo, we'll lay a trap
for those men of yours. Yes sir. They should be along any minute. How
many have you?"
"Nine." Again Cosmo emitted a faint sigh. "What do you want me to do?"
He realized that Mia and Llana both were staring at him with distaste.
Only the Blue Venus seemed untouched.
"You can't betray your men!" Mia burst out.