"Indetectability," replied Kinnison. "We can detect them, but they can't detect us. All you have to do is to stay out of range of their electros and drill for Tellus."
"That's hard to believe, but it must be true. There are nine ships on the plates now: all Boskonians and all certainly looking for us, but not a one of them has paid any attention to us."
"Nor will they. And, by the way, who or what is Boskone?"
"Nobody knows. Helmuth speaks for Boskone, and nobody else ever does, not even Boskone himself—if there is such a person. Nobody can prove it, but everybody knows that Helmuth and Boskone are simply two names for the same man. Helmuth, you know, is only a voice. Nobody ever saw his face until to-day."
"I'm beginning to think so, myself." And Kinnison strode away, to call at the office of Head Nurse MacDougall.
"Mac, here's a small, but highly important box," he told her, taking the neutralizer from his pocket and handing it to her. "Put it in your locker until you get to Tellus. Then take it, yourself, and give it to Haynes, himself, in person, and to nobody else. Just tell him I sent it. He'll know all about it."
"But why not keep it and give it to him yourself? You're coming with us, aren't you?"
"Probably not all the way. I imagine I'll have to shove off before we get back to Tellus."
"But I want to talk to you!" she exclaimed. "Why, I've got a million questions to ask you!"
"That would take a long time"—he grinned at her—"and time is just what we don't have right now, either of us." And he strode back to the board.