Her red lips moved delicately. "Hello," she said. "I've been looking for you." She had not glanced at Kal.
"Now!" Kal cried wildly.
Parr wanted to scream something meaningless, but before the sound could bubble forth the room seemed to erupt into a colored blaze. She had struck at him with a lethal assault!
He reeled, fighting back for his life, conscious now of Kal fighting at his side.
Her eyes were steady, and her face frowned in concentration. She was icy calm in the struggle and there was cold fury in her whips of thought. But slowly, under their resistance, her eyes began to widen in surprise.
For a breath-held moment, even with the two of them against her, the issue seemed in doubt; Kal half crumpled, stunned by a blast of hot thought that seared away his memory for one instant.
She could not turn fast enough to Parr, nor could she, in feinting his automatic attack, strike again at Kal. Then again, the two of them were together, and slowly, very slowly, they hedged her mind between them and shielded it off.
Kal recovered.
Parr gritted his teeth in a mental agony he could not account for and stripped at her outer shield. Kal came in too and the shield began to break.
The Oholo still stood straight and contemptuous in defeat, her eyes calm and deadly as she still struggled against them.