"Find him, if it isn't too late. Come on."
"North?"
"North."
"And if by some miracle we find him?"
Steve said nothing. The answer—capture or death—was obvious. But you couldn't tell that to a traitor's daughter, could you?
As it turned out, they did not find Tobias Whiting through their own efforts. Half an hour after setting out from the unicopter, they were spotted by a roving band of Kumajis, who came streaking toward them on their thlots. Mary raised her atorifle, but Steve struck the barrel aside. "They'd kill us," he said. "We can only surrender."
They were hobbled and led painfully across the sand. They were taken that way to a small Kumaji encampment, and thrust within a circular tent.
Tobias Whiting was in there.
"Mary!" he cried. "My God! Mary...."