Birrel recoiled—but Vannevan's hand swiped across his forehead, across his eyebrows. Then Vannevan uttered an incredulous exclamation.
"This isn't a man of Ruun at all. He's an Earthman!"
Birrel realized what had happened. The blow, the blood streaming down his face, had effectively ruined the careful work of Connor's make-up experts.
Before he could resist, Vannevan rubbed a handkerchief across his face. Birrel, a little dazed and half-blinded by the blood in his eyes, struck out savagely but hit nothing.
Kara's voice reached him. "Rett, you can't be—" Her voice trailed away, and then it came on a different note. "But you're not Rett. He's right, you're an Earthman. Where's Rett?"
Birrel got his eyes open, and now he could see her face, and Holmer's, and the pallor of shocked surprise on both.
He felt a queer guilt. There was no reason for it, they were spies and he was a counter-spy defending his country, defending Earth, but he couldn't rid himself of the feeling.
"Yes," said Vannevan fiercely, "where is Rett? Where's the man you've been impersonating?"
Birrel looked at him and said nothing.