Dirrul backed into the desk, knocking a fragile statuette to the
floor. When it lay shattered at his feet he understood why he could
still plan and reason, even though the disk was gone. The Chief's
shot, fired so close to his head, had deafened him either temporarily
or permanently.
Dirrul ran to the control panel and twisted dials frantically, pulling
every lever he could find. He had no idea what he was doing and it
didn't matter so long as something happened. If he could decontrol
even half the disks on Vinin it would create enough confusion to cover
his own escape.
* * * * *
Twenty-five days later the Space-dragon shot up from the space-field
which was hidden among the stony Vininese mountain ravines. As it cut
through the stratosphere Dirrul's bonds were released. He felt
exhausted and empty. His last memory was of talking to Hurd on the
mountain trail. Beyond that was a blank. He looked up at Glenna, as
beautiful as ever but somehow more mature.
"You're all right now, Eddie?" she asked in a loud voice that betrayed
her deafness.
"I think so. Where are you taking me?"
She touched her ears, still crudely bandaged. "You must say everything
very slowly, Eddie. I haven't yet learned to read lips as well as Hurd
does."
"Where are we going?"
"Back to Agron."
"We have no right, Glenna--we're traitors!"
"We have a duty to tell them the truth. What they do with us doesn't
matter."
He shook his head weakly, still lost in his stupor. "Tell me what
happened, Glenna--I can't remember anything."
"You got out of the government building and stole a Space-dragon. Then
you came looking for us. Just after you met Hurd your hearing began to
come back and of course you lost control of yourself. Hurd wanted to
break your eardrums but I wouldn't let him.
"Since we had a space-ship at last we could get away from Vinin and I
knew you'd be all right when we did. But it took us a month to steal
enough fuel. Something you did in the government building paralyzed a
lot of the leaders for a while but by the time we got around to
looking for fuel the others had restored order again."
The door of the control room slid open and Hurd dropped down on the
bunk beside Dirrul. "Feeling better?" he asked anxiously.
"I guess so. The whole picture's beginning to come back."
Hurd sighed with relief and his face relaxed.