"Certainly, Miss," he replied. He left, and returned a moment later with a telephone. He set it before her and plugged it in under the table.
Juggling the lighter-gun gently in one hand, Maya picked up the phone. As soon as she answered it, her ears were assailed by Nuwell's agonized voice.
"Maya, I can't get up there tonight!" he said. "There aren't any jets here, and these idiots refuse to bring one in from Hesperidum or Cynia for me to use. I'll have to come up by groundcar."
Maya sat silent, stunned. It had not seemed too great a feat to her to hold Dark captive with her disguised heatgun when she was anticipating Nuwell's arrival within hours. But suddenly she felt like a hunter who has snared a lion in a rabbit trap.
"Maya, are you there?" demanded Nuwell querulously. "We'll spell each other at the wheel and drive up without stopping, but it will still take two and a half days to get there."
Maya took a deep breath.
"Come ahead," she said in a steady voice. "I'll have your man waiting for you when you get here."
"You'll what? But I thought you said he was only staying overnight! Maya, don't you do anything rash!"
"I'm afraid I already have," she said, a little ruefully. "I have him under arrest right now."
The noise at the other end of the line sounded like a dismayed shriek.