“What if I should say a rebel?”
But that was the wrong answer. The man’s lips thinned to a single cruel line.
“So- ” his half-whisper was soft but it promised deadly reprisals, “Lossler dares this, does he? Lossler!”
But Kimber had no time for that. He shoved the captive into Dard’s ready hands before he applied a black disc to the grille’s lock. There was a crackle, a shower of spitting sparks. Then Kimber struck the barrier with his shoulder and it yielded. Taking the prisoner with them, they went out into the freedom of the night.
The town was in darkness, a dark broken only by a scattering of street lights. The full moon picked out light and shadow in vivid black and white across the snow on roofs and yards.
“March!” Kimber pushed the captive before him in the direction of the ’copter park. Dard trotted behind, nervously alert, not yet daring to believe that they had been successful.
Before they came onto the crumbling concrete of the takeoff Kimber had instructions for the Laurel Wearer.
“We’re going to take a ’copter,” he explained-bored- as if he were discussing a dull report. “and, once we do that, we shall have no more use for you, understand? It remains entirely up to you in what condition you shall be left behind—”
“And you can tell Lossler from me,” the words came slowly, ground out one by one between teeth set close together, “that he is not going to get away with this!”
“Only we are getting away with it, aren’t we? Now step right ahead-we are all friends-in case there is a guard on duty. You shall see us off and we will trouble you no more.