Terl looked at Jonnie's eyes. They were ice-blue and deadly. “Your turn in a moment, animal. No need to be cross. A whole new life is opening up for you.” He scooped up Chrissie and packed her off the truck.

He was gone for some time. Jonnie heard the cage door opening and shutting as though being tested.

Then the truck rocked as Terl's enormous weight came onto it again.

He looked down at Jonnie. “Any more dummy wires?” he said. “You sure you're not sitting on a blast rifle that has its action dummy wired?” Terl laughed at his own joke. “You know, I am going to knock the crap out of Ker for not teaching you any better.” He was fumbling with Jonnie's leash and lashings. “Rat brain,” said Terl.

The recon drone rumbled in from the distance and passed over with an earsplitting roar. Jonnie glared at it as it passed.

“Good,” said Terl, approving. “You know what spotted her and so you know what will spot you now, if you get up to anything I don't like. Beautiful pictures we get with that thing. Tiniest detail. Get off the truck.”

Jonnie was yanked toward the cage. Terl had indeed been busy. Several things were changed. One of them was his instructor machine and table. It now sat outside the cage. Terl yanked him to a halt.

Chrissie and Pattie were tied to an iron rod that had been inset into the side of the pool. Chrissie was trying to massage some feeling back into Pattie's arms and legs, and the little girl was crying with the pain of returning blood.

“Now, animal,” said Terl, “I am giving you a briefing tour, so pay very close attention.” Terl pointed to an electric connector box on a nearby wall. His talon indicated a heavy wire coming from it that led to the top bars of the cage, wound around each one, enclosed the whole cage high up, and returned to the box. Each cage bar now had insulator wrappings around the bottom.

Terl yanked Jonnie over to a clump of bushes. A coyote was lying there, its head muffled in wrappings, snarls coming from it. Terl put on an insulator glove and picked up the coyote.

“Now tell those two other animals to watch this carefully,” said Terl.

Jonnie said nothing.

“Well, no matter,” said Terl. “I see they are watching.”

With his gloved paw, Terl held up the struggling coyote and launched it at the bars.

There was a searing puff of light. The coyote shrieked.

An instant later it was a charred, crackling mess on the bars, turning black.

Terl chuckled. “Animal, tell them if they touch those bars, that's what will happen.”

Jonnie told them never to touch the bars.

“Next,” said Terl, taking off the glove and putting it in his belt, “we have a real treat for you.”

Terl reached into his pocket and took out a compact switch box. “You know all about remotes, animal. Remember your tractor! This is a remote.” He pointed at the two girls. “Now look closely and you will see they are wearing a different kind of collar. See that red bulge on the side of the collar?”

Jonnie did, all too clearly. He felt sick.

“That,” said Terl, “is a small bomb. It is enough to shatter their necks and blow their heads off. Understand, animal?”

Jonnie glared.

“This switch,” said Terl, pointing to his remote control box, “is the small animal. This switch,” and he pointed to another, “sets off the collar of the other animal. This box-'

" And what is the third switch?” said Jonnie.

“Well, thank you for asking. I didn't think I was getting through to your rat brain. This third switch ignites a general charge in the cage that you do not know the location of and that will blow up the whole lot.”

Terl was smiling behind his faceplate, his amber eyes slitted, flickering, watching Jonnie.

At length he continued. “This control box is always on my person. There are also two other remotes in places you don't know about. Now, is all that very clear to you?”

“It’s clear to me,” said Jonnie, repressing his shaking anger, “that one of the horses can come over and get electrocuted. It 's also clear that you could accidentally trip those controls.”

“Animal, we are standing here jabbering and omitting the fact that I have truly befriended you.”

Jonnie was very alert.

Terl took out a metal cutter and snipped off Jonnie's collar. He then mockingly handed him its remains and the leash.

“Run around,” said Terl. “Feel liberty. Frisk!”

Terl moved off and started picking up some odds and ends of tools he had strewn about while working. The stench of the electrocuted coyote was rank in the air.

“And what do I pay for this?” said Jonnie.

Terl came back. “Animal, you must have realized by now– in spite of your rat brain– that your best course is to cooperate with me.”

"In what way?”

“That's better, animal. I like to see gratitude.”

"In what way?” repeated Jonnie.

“The company has some projects that need doing. They are very confidential, of course. And you are standing there pledging your full cooperation. Right?”

Jonnie looked at him.

“And when they are all done,” said Terl, “why, I will stagger you with gifts, and you can return to the mountains.”

“With them,” said Jonnie, pointing at Chrissie and Pattie.

“Of course, and with your four-legged companions as well.”

Jonnie knew a false Terl when he saw one.

“Of course,” said Terl, “if you try to get away– which I think by now you have found impossible– or if you seek to mess me up or if you don't succeed, why then, very easy, the little one loses its head. And if you repeat your mistake in any way, the bigger one loses its head. And if you go off the cable completely, the whole place blows up. Now do I have your promise of cooperation?”

“I can move around all I please?”

“Of course, animal. I’m tired of hunting rats for you. And I’m sure not going to hunt rats for those two in there!” Terl laughed, the soul of joviality.

“I can go into the cage?”

“When I’m standing outside with my little remote control box watching. Yes.”

“I can ride around the country?”

“As long as you wear this,” said Terl. He pulled out of his pocket a button camera with a loose neck band and dropped it over Jonnie's head. "If it shuts off or gets beyond a five-mile range, why, I just push the first switch.”

“You're not a monster. You're a devil.”

But Terl saw clearly he had won. “So you promise?”

Jonnie dejectedly looked at the remote control box bulge in Terl's pocket. He looked at the two girls who were now gazing at him trustingly.

“I promise to do the project,” said Jonnie. It was as far as he could be stretched.

But it was enough for Terl. He almost gaily tossed his tools into the back of the truck and drove off.

Jonnie walked over to the cage, careful not to touch the bars, and began a cautious low-key explanation of what was going on. He felt like a cheat as he did so. If ever he had seen treachery, it had been in Terl's eyes.