Craven shot him a curious look. “I wouldn't be too sure of that. Manning has a string of some sort tied to us. He's got us tagged… good and proper. He's always been able to find us again, no matter where we were. I have a hunch he'll find us again, even way out here."
Chambers shrugged his shoulders. “It really doesn't matter. Just so we get close enough to the Sun so we can load those accumulators and jam the photo-cells full. With a load like that we can beat him hands down."
The financier fell into a silence. He stared out of the vision plate, watching the stars. Still far away, but so much nearer than they had been.
His brain hummed with dreams. Old dreams, revived again, old dreams of conquest and of empire, dreams of a power that held a solar system in its grip.
Craven broke his chain of thoughts. “Where's our friend Stutsman? I haven't seen him around lately."
Chambers chuckled good-naturedly. “He's sulking. He seems to have gotten the idea neither one of us likes him. He's been spending most of his time back in the engine room with the crew."
"Were you talking about me?” asked a silky voice.
They spun around to see Stutsman standing in the doorway of the control room. His face was twisted into a wolfish grin and in his right hand he held a heat gun.
Chambers’ voice was sharp, like the note of a clanging bell. “What's this?"
Stutsman's face twisted into an even more exaggerated grin. “This,” he said, “is mutiny. I'm taking over!” He laughed at them.