Jonner swung the control chair to look at the screen. There were two dots there, almost directly to the rear of the spaceship. Jonner watched them. They held their position on the screen.
"I don't know," he said. "Pretty large for meteors, and there doesn't seem to be any lateral movement."
Their ship had just begun acceleration, following a hyperbola that would break them free of Mars' gravity. It was a hyperbola that swung the ship against the direction of the planet's orbital travel, and, while speeding the ship away from the planet, slowed it in relation to the sun.
Jonner and Aron were on duty on the control deck. Stein and Farlan slept on the centerdeck below. Two 24-hour periods had passed since they captured The Egg and maneuvered it into the right orbit for their departure from the Martian area.
The blips grew on the screen, and still they did not move laterally.
"Spaceships," Jonner decided.
"They're following our course, and overtaking us."
"Marscorp ships!" exclaimed Aron. "But Jonner, we never were in radar range of any Marscorp ship or installation. How could they know our position and course?"
Without replying, Jonner arose from the control chair and went around behind the control board. The wires to the radio transmitter, which he had disconnected so carefully, had been reconnected.
"Aron," said Jonner, coming back to the control chair, "go down and chain Farlan to his bunk. He's our Marscorp spy."