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- Chapter 6
"All right." Gilas gave her a brief smile. "I'll tell you the rest of it after
you're in the carrier."
The screen went blank.
* * *
"And all I've been trying to do all morning," Gonwil exclaimed, somewhere
between laughter and dismay, "was to settle down quietly without interruptions
to get those grisly Finance Eleven chips cleaned up! You'd think everybody had
gone out of their minds!"
Telzey looked sympathetic. Gonwil's lunch had been delivered to her in the
duplex, on Miss Eulate's instructions; and a few college guards in civilian
clothes loafed around outside, trying to look as if they'd just happened to
wander into the area and weren't really much interested in anything here.
Gonwil filled
Telzey in on the morning's events while she ate the lunch and Telzey
thoughtfully sipped a mug of milk.
The first thing Malrue Parlin and her husband had done after landing at Orado
City's spaceport was to check in at the Tayun consulate. The first thing the
consul general there, an old acquaintance, had done was to tell them about the
ominous strangers who had inquired about Gonwil Lodis early in the day. And
the fat was in the fire.
"Cousin Malrue went into a howling tizzy!" Gonwil reported, shuddering. "She
said she'd always known it was too risky for me to be studying on Orado. So
she wanted to get me away from here now, with the
Parlin family, where I'd be safe. Naturally, Pehanron said, `No!' and am I
glad! Old Eulate's bad enough about this, but Malrue . . . !"
"Think she might pop in on you here?"
Gonwil nodded. "The whole family plans to show up at Pehanron this evening.
Malrue will be battling with Eulate and I'll be in the middle! And there's no
way I can stop it."
"You wouldn't be in the middle," Telzey observed, "if you weren't here."
"If I weren't . . ." Gonwil glanced sharply over at her, lowered her voice to
a whisper. "How . . . when
Eulate's got those people staring at my front and back doors? I'm confined to
quarters."
"First step," Telzey whispered back, "we move your chips and stuff to my side.
Eulate said under the circumstances it'd be all right if I helped you a little
on the tests."
"They can see your front and back doors too, dopey!" Gonwil pointed out. "What
good will that do?"
"They can't see inside my carport."
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- Chapter 6
"Huh? No!" Gonwil grinned. "The shower window . . ." She looked doubtfully at
Chomir. "Can we boost Musclehead through it?"
"We can try. Want to?"
"Ha! When?"
"Right now. Before Eulate realizes you've got a loophole left."
"I should leave her a note," Gonwil remarked. "Something reassuring. I simply
had to get away for a few days or suffer a nervous breakdown. . . ."
"Sounds fine," Telzey approved.
"Then, perhaps I should call Malrue and tell her, so . . ."
"Are you out of your mind?"
Gonwil looked reluctant. "You're right. Me being at Pehanron is bad, but going
off by myself would be worse. If we didn't agree to wait till she could pick
us up outside, she'd be perfectly capable of tipping off Eulate!"
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Some minutes later, Telzey came out the back door on her side of the bungalow,
dressed for a town trip again. The two Pehanron guards stationed across the
traffic lane eyed her as she started towards the enclosed carport, but made no
move. They hadn't been instructed to keep watch on Telzey.
Inside the stall and out of their sight, she slid behind the Cloudsplitter's
hood, roared the main engine experimentally a few times, glanced up. The
shower window already stood open. Chomir's big white head appeared in it now,
pointed ears tipped questioningly forwards, broad brow wrinkled in
concentration. He had grasped that something unusual was required of him but
what? To look out of
Telzey's shower window?
Telzey beckoned.
"Down here, Brainless!"
She couldn't hear Gonwil's voice above the noise of the engine, but Chomir's
air of well-meaning bewilderment increased. Why, his eyes inquired of Telzey,
was Gonwil shoving around at his rear? Then his forepaws came into view,
resting on the window sill. Telzey gestured violently, pointing at the
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- Chapter 6
ground below the window.
Urged on from in front and behind, Chomir suddenly got the picture. He
grinned, lolled out his tongue, sank back, came up and out in a flowing,
graceful leap, clearing the window frame by a scant half-inch on all sides. He
landed and waved his tail cheerfully at Telzey.
She caught his collar and patted him, while Gonwil, red-faced from her effort
to lift more than her own weight in dog straight up, came wriggling through
the shower window after him with an overnight bag containing the Finance
Eleven chips and her library. Telzey slid open the Cloudsplitter's luggage
compartment.
A minute later, she turned the little car out into the traffic lane. She had
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