"Did you hear that, sir?” cried Jenk Cheerly to the dictator. “A secret weapon of the Alliance, built by the physicist Philip Blaine in the caverns of Earth's moon! That's why the Alliance wanted the radite — to operate that weapon!"
Haskell Trask's eyes snapped. The dictator strode to where Thorn sat cursing his own loss of mental control that gave the secret away.
"What is the weapon that the Alliance has hidden in the lunar caves?” he demanded of Thorn. “Speak, Earthman!"
Thorn remained rigidly silent. With a violent burst of anger, the dictator struck him across the face.
"We've got to find out what that secret Alliance weapon is!” Trask snapped to his spymaster. “There's just a chance they might be able to operate it without the radite."
"He'll give it away to the psychophone, in time,” Cheerly assured his master. “He can't help but give it away — the psychophone pulls out all their secrets, sooner or later."
"You're wrong this time,” John Thorn said bitterly. “I don't know the nature of the Alliance weapon. None of us know it — and I'm damned glad now we don't!"
"He's lying, of course,” Jenk Cheerly said calmly. “But he'll have to think the truth, sooner or later."
"We'll keep these Planeteers; under the psychophones until they do tell what that weapon is,” Trask declared harshly. “Meanwhile, don't delay, Cheerly. Get started now for Erebus!"
John Thorn writhed as Lana was brought out of her cell by two of Cheerly's men, and carried down the corridor. He could just glimpse her white, worn face through the grating in the door, and heard her despairing, sobbing cry.