"Miss Gamble—Stella!" Larry sputtered. "What are you doing—"
"Never mind that now, spaceman," her voice came, business-like. "I've got his track coming in. Keep out of my way. That's all I ask. Give me time to do it my way. You can always destroy the freighter later—if I don't succeed."
"Sure," Larry said bitterly. "I can always destroy a ship that has a girl in it I could like—" He bit his lip.
Her laugh answered him. She was drawing away from him.
Muttering a curse, he extended his trackers from the shell, but even as he did, he realized the trick she had played on him. Her own exhaust trail would make it impossible for him to detect that other fainter trail.
And there was something else.
"Miss Gamble!" he spoke into the microphone sharply. "Stella! That robot could leave a space mine. Your ship is a private job. It doesn't have the equipment in it to get away from a mine."
Her laugh was unbelieving, scornful. "And where could that robot get a space mine?" she taunted.
"It could make one. It has the materials."