"You aren't overly fond of Bemmelman?"
"I loathe him!" With a savage jerk, she yanked her white negligee down from her left shoulder. "See that?"
He saw a scar on the pale-blue skin above her breast. It was the shape of a fern leaf and he could have covered it with his thumb.
"Branded!" she spat. "My father was a Jovian Dawn Man—an animal! But my mother was an Earth woman. Hal Bemmelman kidnapped her!"
The hooded man regarded her pityingly. She was only a kid, he realized. He said:
"You can't get Bemmelman like that. He runs the government at Venusport. He'd never come to trial." He stopped, realizing that she wasn't listening.
Nostrils flaring, head erect, the girl was looking through him blankly. A glimmer of fright flitted across her mobile features. Then she raised the dart gun, pointed it full at his chest.
"Put your hands on top of your head, please!"
His green eyes contracted angrily. He didn't move.
"I mean it! Put your hands on top of your head, please."