The men who had been standing on the platform were now rushing forward.
Three were lean and butter-colored. One was a burly Earthman, who said
in a tone of amazement, "What the hell--"
"Hold it!" Durham shouted. He swept Susan behind him and tried to cover
all fronts at once, not knowing whether the men were there to capture
him or were only there by chance and responding to the Wanbecqs' cry
for help. "These people attacked us. I have passage on your ship--"
From out of the night there came a shrill, flat, hooting cry of "Jubb!
Jubb! Jubb!"
The butter-colored men yelled. They scattered away and out, their
feet scrabbling on the platform. The Earthman was slower and more
belligerent. He turned around and the spiky little blob of darkness
came leaping at him. He put up his hands and struck at it, and the
darkbird hooted as the fists passed through it, crackling. The Earthman
opened his mouth in a round shocked O and went rigid, rising up on the
tips of his toes. The darkbird seemed to merge with his skull for the
fraction of a second, and he crumpled down with his mouth still open
and his chest rising and falling heavily. The darkbird swooped toward
Durham.
Durham fired at it.
It soaked up part of the beam and left the rest, like a well-fed cat
rejecting an overplus of milk. It darted past Durham and into the
taxi, where it bounced agilely, once and twice. Wanbecq and Wanbecq-ai
fell down on the floor. The doors closed softly and the taxi mechanism
whirred and the rail hummed as it took off, heading back to the main
terminal. The darkbird returned to Durham.