"Impassable?" Baxter scowled.
"Not for us, but for Clatclit, here," I said. "He can't even go around this corner without risking deadly corrosion. And, in case you didn't notice back in your office, he's had a pretty nasty exposure already."
"Nevertheless," said Baxter, "I must insist that he either accompany us, or be destroyed right here."
"What!" I said, appalled. "You can't ask him to do that! He wouldn't last any longer than you would in boiling oil!"
"I certainly do not intend to leave him here," Baxter snapped. "He might alert others of his kind, and—"
"And what?" I growled. "You could fend off a million of them with that weapon of yours."
"And risk the ceiling falling in on my head?" Baxter said. "No, Delvin, I'm not about to take that chance."
"And just how," I said savagely, "did that peanut brain of yours plan on your getting out of here without him?"
Baxter paused, his gun hand wavering.
"Because if he melts in the river, or is vaporized right here and now, you will be stuck without a light. Stuck in a rock-hard maze that you couldn't negotiate alone if you had a light."