The gloomy news did nothing to lift Tom's spirits. The next day, hoping to verify or disprove his suspicion, he drove to Shopton Police Headquarters with Harlan Ames. The two talked briefly with Chief Slater, an old friend. Then a turnkey took them to the cell block.
The four prisoners had been confined in a single large cell. They seemed tense and angry—as if they had been quarreling among themselves.
"Ready to talk yet?" Ames asked. Getting no reply, he repeated the question in Brungarian.
Ames's ruse failed. "What language is that?" asked "Captain Smith" mockingly. "Pig Latin?"
As his cellmates grinned, Tom's eyes roved over their faces. One man—wavy-haired with penetrating dark eyes—seemed oddly familiar. Why? Suddenly the answer hit Tom like a flash. He resembled Streffan Mirov, the brilliant Brungarian rocket scientist who had tried to oust Tom's expedition from the phantom satellite Nestria.
Playing a hunch, Tom said to him, "You know what your government does to rebels and bunglers, Mirov."
The man stiffened and paled. "We have not b-b-bungled!" he stuttered angrily.
"Shut up, you fool!" their leader shouted.