The thing almost hit Cheng. With an oath, the slaver leaped away.
"The cage!" he roared. "Bring back that cage!"
His aides leaped to obey.
Ross snatched up a second gulfer; hurled it after the first.
Cursing and dodging, Cheng's men raced the cage back, striving to block the door.
Kicking through the bars, Ross knocked it out of alignment. Then, grappling with another gulfer, he swung it so it fell on the far side of the closest man.
A hoarse yell. The burly, bullet-headed outlaw leaped back against the bars in his effort to escape contact with the monster.
Fast as a striking vrong, Ross caught the man by the throat with one hand and clawed out his victim's light-pistol with the other.
The first beam he fired scorched the corridor wall less than a foot from Igor Cheng's head. The second dropped Cheng's other helper in his tracks.
The slaver sprinted away like a scared ban.