She sobbed desperately.
Something had been wrong with her reasoning, and she had only twenty minutes left to start from the beginning and find the Knoug's body.
Parr ran quickly along the corridor. He passed two incurious Knougs. He continued on, winding upward toward the control room which he had to capture. There would be a delicate balance of timing and luck between success and failure.
He was not frightened now, even though he knew he could not personally win the fight in capture or success. His mind was calm. Strangely, too, it was at peace.
He clambered up the final ladder, his hands unsteady on the rungs. The control room door was closed. He tensed, listening, wondering how many of the enemy were inside.
He knocked, his knuckles brittle on steel. He thought, in that fleet second, of Lauri. He wondered dimly, if she had found the comset.
"Yeah?"
"I've got Kal out here, sir!" Parr said briskly, hoping to imitate the orderly's voice.
"What the hell!" a voice from inside roared, "I thought we told you to take him down to the Commander's office."