“And I was blocked against spy-rays,” said Number One, “so it must have been a snooper. A snooper with a voice. Manarkans are snoopers, but they can’t talk. Most snoopers can’t . . . except maybe Ordoviks. There were a couple of them around last night. Can Ordoviks talk? And Chickladorians—are they snoopers?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know either, but I’ll find out, and when I do I’ll go gunning.”
Tommie came back to Cloud’s room and her serenity, skin-deep at best, vanished completely as the new tape was played.
“Condemn and blast that lying, slimy, two-faced, double-crossing snake!” she roared. “I’ll call out the. . . .”
“You won’t either—pipe down!” Cloud ordered, sharply. “Mob rule never settled anything. That’s what you expected, isn’t it?”
“Well . . . more or less, I suppose . . . yes.”
“QX. We got something to work on now, but we need more, and we’ve got only today to get it. Who’s the crookedest judge in town—the one most apt to be in on this kind of a deal?”
“Trellis. High Judge Rose Trellis of the Enchanting. . . .”
“Skip the embellishments. Take both of these tapes to Judge Trellis and insist on seeing him at once.”