He had the barrier, but he could not drive through it. He could hide, but when hiding could not run. He could run, but when running could not hide.
But he was the equal of the Patrol's best watchdogs. A bit of hare and hounds might come out with the hare a winner. At worst, Guy had nothing to lose.
XV.
His only hope of escaping detection was his knowledge that the negative-detector, developed in the Orionad for use against sub-ships was less sensitive as to range than the positive-detector. The establishment of negative evidence is never conclusive. And his souped-up detector would outrange any but another souped-up job.
So Guy coasted for days, which at five thousand miles took him far, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Then he crammed on the deceleration and came to a stop, with respect to Sol, and then started back along a course several degrees to the south and thirty degrees to the right of Sol. He drove at the same 10-Gs for an hour and then closed the barrier about him once more.
Meanwhile, the mathematicians on Terra had been plying their trade. The Laws of Probability came out of hiding and became their favorite subject. Knowing his course and direction up to the first establishment of the barrier, which surprised them and caused them to dislike Kane that much more for having installed one on the Loki, they tossed their hypothetical coin, drew probability curves, made space-models, and came up with a flared cone, in which volume Guy must appear. And then they buttered their decision by stating that the cone held true only if Guy did not apply power in another direction.
They grinned, when they said it. It was thirty billion to one that Guy would apply power instead of just running off at five thousand miles per second until he hit the next star in line with that course.
So they sent out ships with souped-up detectors to follow the edges of the cone.
And Guy, running back Solward outside of the cone of expectancy with the barrier on, detected them at extreme range and laughed. He left them running in the opposite direction, and when they were far beyond range, Guy dropped his barrier and drove at an angle away from Sol which added to a quartering course from Pluto by the time he had the course corrected. He drove solid for days at 1-G, and then decelerated in an upwards vector which carried him a billion miles to the north of the Celestial Equator and ten billion miles from Sol. He turned again and ran tangent to the circle from his position to Sol, and dropped slightly southward. Again he came to a stop.