Bartol knew exactly where he was going—if only he could get there in time!
He ran through the dimly lit halls which were piled high with crates and boxes. At last he came to a wall which looked like any other wall—but Bartol knew it was different.
"Autarch!" the ear speaker crackled. "What are you doing down there? Why are you in the storage compartments?"
"I'm hiding," snapped Bartol. He knows where I am now. I'll have to work fast.
He pressed his thumb against a hidden niche in the wall. A tiny device recorded his thumbprint, checked it against previous patterns, and then clicked. A panel slid aside. Within it was a curiously shaped helmet.
Bartol could hear the pounding of android feet all around him. Nearby, a wall started to smoke. He slammed the helmet on his head, locked the chinpiece into place, and activated the mechanism within the dome.
"Where are you? What was that helmet? The assassin is coming down!"
Evidently, the now-panicky Commander was watching him in the vision screens. He wouldn't see anything now; Bartol was invisible to infrabeams.
Unfortunately, he was still visible to normal vision. The nearby wall cascaded outward with a splash of molten metal, and an android stepped through, firing a heavy beam-rifle. The beam struck Bartol with a glare of blue-white light—and splashed.
With the helmet on, Bartol was just as impervious to ordinary beams as the assassin who was even now burning his way down through the Palace. Like the assassin, all he had to do was avoid anything as heavy as a semiportable.