"We followed his spectragraph in the screen, Excellency. We followed it until it disappeared!"
The black orbs in the thin white face of the chief scientist burned with fanatical ardor. Through thin lips he rasped, "He tricked me. He had those pirates of his pick him up when he was safely out of my hands."
"He went through the Flaming Lands," quavered the cowled man. "We saw him do that. Would he go to all that trouble to be picked up in the desert? He could have escaped from the Car Carolan Sea."
"Evidence of his cunning. He wanted to make sure he was a good distance away from the power of the Diktor."
"The Diktor?"
"You fool! I'm going to the Diktor and turn Moana over to his torturers. I'll tell him Angus planned with Moana to kill him. Hai. The torturers will work over her a long time, I think. When Angus hears of that...."
The Hierarch brooded. He smiled, "I might even turn that into a trap for him. When he returns, having heard what has happened to Moana, I'll be waiting for him."
Angus slid down from the rock with his heart in his mouth. The canteen flew out into the air, he thought. It went high, and as it came down it disappeared!
There was something just ahead of him. Perhaps a force field hidden in the shifting and eddying mists rising from the desert lands.