"What do you mean?"
Llana pointed at the Blue Venus. "Sofi," she said in a low voice. "Sofi is only seven years old!"
Absolute silence gripped the room.
"You'll swear to that?" asked the Commissioner at length.
"Of course. Half the serfs in the house know her age anyway."
"We've got him," cried the Commissioner jubilantly. "We've got him dead to rights."
"It's a frame up," shouted Bemmelman in despair. "A dirty frame up, I tell you."
Cosmo regarded the planter with opaque green eyes. "Save your breath, Bemmelman," he counseled him dryly. "No one's going to believe the Renegade—remember?"
From the flat roof of the manor house, Cosmo and Mia watched the Security Patrol planes take off one by one for Venusport. The head overseer was to take charge of the plantation until the courts confirmed Cosmo's claims. Llana and Sofi planned to visit Earth after Bemmelman's trial.
Cosmo had taken Big Unse aside, sent him off secretly with the men to destroy any evidence in their hideout. They were to return to the plantation. "I want the lot of you under my eyes," Cosmo had explained with a grin, "where you won't be tempted to raid my plantation."