"I came to take you away with me," said Greg. "Back to Callisto. Back to any place you want to go."
Mallory flattened himself against the partition, his face white with disbelief. "But I'm in a prison ship. I'm not free to go and come as I please."
Greg chuckled. "You are free to go and come as you please from now on," he said. "Even prison ships can't hold you."
"You're mad," whispered Mallory. "Either you're mad or I am. You're a dream. I'll wake up and find you gone."
Manning stood in silence, looking at the man. Mallory bore the marks of prison on him. His eyes were haunted and his rugged face was pinched and thin.
"Listen closely, Mallory," said Greg softly. "You aren't going mad and I'm not mad. You aren't seeing things. You aren't hearing things. You're actually talking to me."
There was no change in the other's face.
"Mallory," Greg went on, "I have what you've always needed—means of generating almost unlimited energy at almost no cost, the secret of the energy of matter. A secret that will smash Interplanetary, that will free the Solar System from Spencer Chambers. But I can't make that secret available to the people until Chambers is crushed, until I'm sure that he can't take it from me. And to do that I need your help."
Mallory's face lost its expression of bewilderment, suddenly lighted with realization. But his voice was harsh and bitter.