"Range two hundred yards and closing," said an Antimanco pilot.

I looked at the viewer. All was calm aboard that flight. An attendant up near the door was getting a pillow for a child.

Captain Stabb grabbed Jeeb's radio. "NOW!" he barked.

The viewer showed that Jeeb's lapel camera was rising up.

Jeeb reached over the seat. He shoved the back of the Countess Krak's head forward with his left hand.

He raised his right and savagely struck a paralysis dagger into her shoulder.

The Countess Krak tried to rise up.

The flight attendant screamed.

"Range zero!" barked an Antimanco pilot.

"Tractor beams!" roared Stabb.

The airliner's back was gripped and slammed up against the line-jumper underside. There was a lurch.

I looked down. The engineer had thrown the hatch open. The back of the airliner's fuselage was visible, held to the line-jumper's bell.

"Maintain that ship's speed!" shouted Stabb.

I looked at the viewer.

BEDLAM!

People were trying to get out of their seats. Children began to scream.

Jeeb backed down the aisle.

"Cutters!" shouted Stabb.

The engineer went down through the hatch.

A pilot was coming through the airliner flight deck door.

"Can I shoot?" shouted Jeeb into his radio.

"Fire away!" I shouted back.

Jeeb raised a glass blastick and let drive. The pilot fighting his way toward him and three people around him dissolved in electric fire!

"I've got it!" shouted our engineer.

I looked down. He had opened a large circular hole in the top of the airliner.

Captain Stabb was instantly scrambling down the lad­der the engineer had used. Stabb dropped through and out of sight.

The bedlam increased from the viewer and I could hear it coming up through the hole.

Stabb moved into sight in the viewer. His huge arms were flailing out left and right, knocking passengers back. A child got in his way and he hurled it screaming at the flight deck door.

Then Stabb had something in his hand. He wrenched the door wide open.

The copilot struck at him. Captain Stabb's club smashed his face to bloody pulp.

Stabb was in the flight deck for a long minute while the screams went on. A businessman sought to tackle Jeeb and Jeeb fired again.

The view went clear.

Stabb came out of the flight deck. He was holding the pilot recording box on which they record last minute occurrences before they crash.

Another child, struggling up, got in his way. He smashed its skull with the box he held.

Stabb came opposite Krak's seat. A man clawed at him and he smashed him with the box. The captain was looking in the rack for the gold wrapped packages. He found them and tore one's wrapping off. He looked at the silk scarf and threw it away. He ripped up the other one, found another scarf. He tossed it aside in disgust.

Several passengers were still moving. Systematically, Stabb battered them to death. Then he and Jeeb began to rip watches off wrists and wallets from pockets. They emptied a bag full of baby clothes and threw their loot in.

Then Stabb bent over in the center of the ship and lifted up the Countess Krak. He threw her over his shoulder and walked back toward Jeeb. The Countess Krak's hair was hiding her face. Her arms trailed, limp.

Stabb made a gesture and Jeeb went up the ladder.

Jeeb appeared at my level. He put the bag of loot aside and reached back. He picked Krak off the captain's shoulder and tossed her on the floor.

Stabb came up.

"We still over the sea?" he shouted.

"Miles to go to shore," an Antimanco pilot shouted back.

"Stand clear!" roared Stabb. "Engineer, let go the tractor beams!"

I looked down through the opening as the ladder was pulled in.

The airliner suddenly fell away from us.

It went over on one wing. It began to spiral down.

I felt very heavy and then realized we were climbing at a rapid rate.

An Antimanco pilot called, "There's islands below us. It says on the map they're called the Palagruza."

That wasn't so good. I didn't want it crashed on an island. "Track that airliner carefully!" I ordered.

I looked down through the open hatch. It was black. I could not see anything. Suddenly it snapped closed. I got up and looked at the screens.

They had the airliner in clear view with nonvisible light bands. It was swooping, its engines still going.

"It won't pull out," said Stabb. "I wrecked the controls."

It seemed to be heading in a general, floppy way toward a large island. I held my breath. It had to crash in the sea and leave no traces.

Suddenly it went into a vertical power dive and did not come out.

It struck with a huge explosion of spray just offshore of the larger island.

I sighed with relief.

I turned my attention to the floorboards.

There lay the Countess Krak. She would be out for another three hours, at least.

I did not want to touch her. I began a gesture to Cap­tain Stabb. "Tie her hands and feet and tie them well."

The Countess Krak was deadly no more. She was in my hands!

We returned to the Earth base in the mountain at Afyon, Turkey, well before dawn.

We dropped through the electronic illusion that even radar reflected as part of the mountain's peak. We came to rest on the hangar floor.

I did not want to touch the Countess Krak. I signalled Stabb to pick her up.

He threw her over his shoulder and clambered down the ladder. "We got our hostage," he said to me. "Now, when do we start robbing the banks?"

"I have to make sure they have gold shipments in them," I said. "I'll get my lines out and let you know first thing."

"Where do I put the hostage?" said Stabb. "We want her in a safe place."

"Oh, I've got one," I said. "Follow me."

I walked into the prison block and all the way to the end. Here lay the big cell I had built for Crobe, completely escape-proof even for the Countess Krak.

I worked the combination lock on the outer door. I unlocked the inner door. I threw on the lights. The place was filthy: it had never been cleaned up. And Crobe didn't care where he did what he did.

There was a flooding lever that would wash the place out. I reached for it and then I stayed my hand. It served the (bleepch) right.

I stepped in. A horrible stench. I gestured toward the bed.

Stabb walked in and threw her on it.

We withdrew. I securely locked the inner door. I closed the outer one and spun the combination.

I looked through the small square port. What a delight! There she lay, tousled and defeated-my pris­oner. At last I had removed her as a menace!

When I thought over her list of crimes against me, I was appalled that I had let her live so long. What an oversight!

A puckish whim hit me. I could not spit on her. But I could make sure that when she woke she would be chilled to the bone.

I reached over and pulled the flooding lever.

Sprays jetted out from the walls in a blinding rush. Their force was driving filth off the walls and along the floor and into the drains. I had not intended that. I only wanted the place soaking wet.

I tried to shut the lever off but it was an automatic set. That (bleeped) construction chief had done his work too well when he had fitted out this place. The jet sprays ran their course. The water vapor hung in the cell. A hissing sound started up. The water was followed by jets of drying air! That was not what I intended at all! I wrestled with the lever but it was moving back at its own speed.

Upset, I looked back through the small port. I could not believe my eyes! It was nearly time for the paralysis dagger to wear off but the cold water had revived her.