The two younger ones were already on the ground, one on either side of him. Only the bearded man remained mounted. He leaned forward. "I thought you looked familiar. You're Doctor Peccary of the Y Hormone?" His voice was a menacing whisper. Peccary finally answered with a slow nod.
"He must have flipped, running around alone like this," a man beside him said. "However, let's never insult fortune!"
This was the last Dr. Peccary heard. For at that instant one of the men—he never knew which—struck him forcibly over the head with a blunt instrument.
III
At Humanac's controls Roger Staghorn leaped to his feet in alarm as he saw what was happening on the screen.
Peccary had collapsed now. The two men were draping him across the bearded man's saddle. There wasn't an instant to lose! Staghorn leaped to the transmitter cell where Peccary's material body was seated, his eyes peacefully closed. Staghorn flipped the switch to disengage Peccary's consciousness from Humanac's circuits.
Nothing happened. Peccary's body remained as before, blissfully asleep.
Good lord, of course nothing happened! How could it? Peccary had just been knocked cold; at the moment he didn't have any consciousness! Staghorn opened the circuit again and whirled back to the control console.
He looked at the screen. All three men were mounted again. The bearded leader gestured them on.