"At once."
The warden was gone less than ten minutes, returning with a muscular, sexless female jailor who prodded Laniq ahead of her. Laniq stared at them dully, without hope.
"Thank you," said Tedor to the warden. "We'll take her."
Dorlup-Malenkov smiled and the warden bowed out. In the street, Laniq's spirit had returned. "Don't tell me Malenkov himself is going to be around for the execution?"
They didn't say anything. Tedor wanted to be in the car before they revealed themselves to her.
"You'll have to catch me first!" cried Laniq. Tedor had been holding her loosely by the arm and she suddenly tried to pull away. When his grip tightened, she turned on him furiously, raking his face with her nails, kicking, biting butting with her head.
Tedor pinned her arms to her sides while she cried in rage. "Cut it out, Laniq. I'm Tedor. Tedor!"
"Te-dor? Tedor? Oh, Tedor...." Laniq fainted in his arms.
They drove south with her to the time-conveyor.