"—will have got another fix on us as we crossed, for sure," Vaillant was saying, in a bitter voice. "They'll have the net out for us—the pattern will be shaping now and we can't slip through it."
"We can't," said Webber. "The ship can't. But the flitter can, with luck."
They both looked at Kieran. "He's the important one," Webber said. "If a couple of us could get him through—"
"No," said Paula. "We couldn't. As soon as they caught the ship and found the flitter gone, they'd be after him."
"Not to Sako," said Webber. "They'd never figure that we'd take him to Sako."
"Do I have a word in this?" asked Kieran, between his teeth.
"What?" asked Vaillant.
"This. The hell with you all. I'll go no place with you or for you."
He got a savage satisfaction from saying it, he was tired of sitting there like a booby while they discussed him, but he did not get the reaction from them he had expected. The two men merely continued to look thoughtfully at him. The woman sighed,