He thought about it, trying to reason it out. The Jupiter Equilateral men obviously wanted them alive. They did not dare to kill Roger Hunter's sons, because Roger Hunter might have told them where the bonanza was. And Jupiter Equilateral would not dare let anyone of them break away. If one of them got back to Mars, the whole U.N. Patrol would be out in the Belt....
The plan became clear in his mind, but he had to let Greg know. He fingered the control of his helmet radio. The boarding party would have a snooper, but if he was quick, they wouldn't have time to nail him. He buzzed an attention code. "Greg? Can you hear me?"
Silence. He buzzed again, and waited. What was wrong? Had they already broken through to the control cabin and taken Greg? He buzzed again. "Greg! Sound off if you can hear me."
More silence. Then a click. "Tom?"
"Here. Are you all right?"
"So far. You?"
"They got past me, but they didn't hit me. How's Johnny?"
"I don't know," Greg said. "I think he's been hurt. Tom, you'd better get off, they'll have snoopers...."
"All right, listen," Tom said. "How does it look to you?"
"Bad. We're outnumbered, they'll be through to here any minute."