"Frank was one of Howard's best men," she said simply.
"More of the pattern clearing up," he sighed. "They killed your
brother, getting a lot of innocent bystanders in the process. They
tried to kill me the same way, although I didn't have anything more
than a crude idea to go on."
Norma looked at him soberly. "I hate to admit it, but I've heard this
three-tongued language of yours. So that makes you right on one count
anyway."
"We're not fighting only a well-integrated mob," he said. "We're
fighting a complete stellar culture."
"You say 'we' so blithely. Tell me how you managed to turn up like the
proverbial bad penny."
"I outguessed 'em, finally. I was right, for once--" He explained how
it had been done in a few rapid sentences.
"We saw them catch the Lancaster, and wondered why you suddenly
went dead at the board after dodging them so well. Damn it,
Farra--er--Charles, you've done it."
"Done what?"
"Convinced me. You aren't here to play the friend-in-need act to get
more information out of me, after loading me to the gills with stuff
out of a needle that makes me babble like a marmoset. So you're here
for what you say."
"Why did they bring you back here?" he asked. "It seems to me they'd
toss you in the locker."
"That's for later. Right now they're comparing my story with Howard's,
and after that we'll both be taken to their 'Detention Planet' in some
other stellar system and kept as last-ditch hostages in this war. There
seem to be a lot of people who got too bright for the enemy and they're
all there, too."