"Force screen," he guessed.
Bemmelman approached, grinning amiably. He was wearing a snuff brown suit which set on him like a sack.
"Don't try to escape," cautioned the planter as he inserted a slender key in the spring lock, threw back the top of the cage. "You'd be electrocuted if you went through any of the outside doors or windows."
Cosmo and Mia stood up shakily.
"We won't bolt, if that's what you mean," Cosmo replied dryly. He glanced at the handsome, impassive blue giants, discarded any idea of attacking Bemmelman directly.
"I'm happy to see you're amenable to reason, Cosmo. I sure am." He rubbed his nose. "Yes sir. I like a reasonable man. I'm going to be able to use you, Cosmo."
"That's what you said last night," Cosmo reminded him, his face blank. The palms of his hands were sweating. He wanted to run as fast and far from the sly, red-faced man as he could. Bemmelman, he was beginning to sense, was as slippery and dangerous as the infamous Venusian swamp rath.
A door at the rear of the chamber opened suddenly. Cosmo jumped. A glance assured him it was only a slave girl. She wasn't a Venusian, though. He frowned. She was from Earth.
The Terran girl regarded the prisoners curiously, then faced Bemmelman. "Rabaul said you wanted me." She was dressed in a green sarong which reached from her knees to her breasts. On her left shoulder was a small scar in the shape of a fern leaf: Bemmelman's brand.
"Yes sir," said the planter; "so I do. So I do, Llana. Be so good as to escort Miss MacIver to the tower apartment. Don't leave her."