He turned away. He wished there might have been some other way than sacrificing those men, but if the scientists had not held the lock, the Disciples might have remained in permanent control of the ship.
He beckoned to Terry, who was checking the roster with Mason. "Have you accounted for everyone yet?"
"Peters, Atchison, and Markham appear to be the three we couldn't identify," said Terry. "And, of course, Jandro. No one has heard or seen anything of him since he killed Rennies."
"Jandro!" Underwood was suddenly and fearfully aware of Jandro's absence. "We've got to find him. There's no use of any of us leaving unless we do."
"I couldn't be sure, but I think I saw him from the lock viewplates a minute ago," Captain Dawson said. "There's no way of telling except by that oversize spacesuit, but he may be lying on the ground out there."
"If he's been killed—" Underwood raced toward the nearest viewing station.
He switched it on and scanned the area about the ship. Disciples were milling about, hesitant about using their Atom Stream weapons to force entrance without orders from their Commander.
Dawson pointed. "Toward the stern—there!"
It was unmistakably Jandro, though a blast had blackened the upper right portion of the spacesuit and a gap showed in it.