"Yes, but what good would it do us?" said Joe. "We'd still be locked in here and no way out."
"We'd be taking them with us, anyway —" Barnes muttered savagely.
"Cut it out," said Joe. "This is entirely impersonal. Get your gray matter agitating on the physical problem of getting out. You can hate them afterwards. Now, as I see it, the problem is to persuade them to open up the door voluntarily. We can't possibly get out unless they do."
"You put it so neatly," said Hamilton. "What are we going to do? Offer a free ride to the one that opens up first?"
They were young, Joe thought, and they'd never been trained for danger. Life was too soft for kids nowadays. It was probably the first time these two youngsters had ever considered the possibility of fatal circumstances occurring to them.
They wouldn't be of much help.
He turned to Litchfield. "What do you think?"
"I'm thinking, but there's not much production so far. I don't see what we can do to make them turn us loose."
"Irritate 'em."
"Like itching powder under their shells, huh?"