It was the supervisor. "For the last time, buddy—"
Jansen turned and hit him. The supervisor, an astonished look on his face, stumbled back off the amphibious vehicle and into the swamp. Jansen waited to see that he got up, then slid in through the hatch and started the buggy.
There would be an alarm, he knew. But Bareen's buggy hadn't been hurrying. If he could overtake it....
He chugged along, expecting pursuit momentarily. He rode with the hatch open and his body half out, for best visibility. He saw the other swamp vehicle, perhaps three hundred yards ahead. It reached the narrow neck of the domed corridor and paused at the check-point there, then went through.
Soon Jansen reached the check-point. Two men with blasting rifles stood in his path, looking suspicious.
"Get out of the way!" Jansen called boldly. "I'm Bareen's bodyguard."
"Behind him?"
"Where would you stay, friend?"
The guards exchanged glances. One of them grinned. But the other one said, "We got a report of a guy who—"