"You can't go. I've got you."
LET ME GO. LET ME GO.
The Aab struggled furiously.
"Damn you, I won't let you go." Monk hurled the thought at the creature in a fire of desperate fury.
The Aab fell, exhausted.
Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed. The wind blew. The hot Martian sun transformed the desert into a sea of glittering scarlet. A mist of sand settled on the inert body of the Aab, camouflaging it.
How many minutes more till the arrival of Stardust Luke? It must be close to noon. There'd be perhaps five more hours. Sixty minutes in an hour, and five hours—
The Aab stirred. It began to rise.
Monk concentrated on the thought: "You can't move. I've got you. You can't rise."