"Andre Norton - Cat's Eye - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

"What's the idea?" Troy folded his long legs into the
cramped quarters beside Zul. "Don't we lift back?"

For the first time those wide lips split in something
approaching a grin.

"No, no lift back." The other mimicked his tone.
"We carry those who must ride easy."

Not much of an explanation, Troy thought. If the
occupants of the cage had managed to survive passage
19

in a space freighter, they certainly could take very
easily a short air flight back to Sixth Square. He had
something other to chew on also—that move by Varms.
Taken together with this action of Zul's, it began to
make sense. Could the yellow man and the novice
thief have rigged a highjack between them, with himself !

set up to pin the blame upon?

Troy dismissed that thought. Too many loose ends.
He was not driving; Zul was. He could prove that he
had had no connection with Kyger's before this morn-
ing, knew nothing of any cargo that was coming in for I
the shop. And somehow he was certain Zul was not
planning any double cross of his employer—in spite of
Varms. But there had to be a reason, other than the
one he had been given, for this ground-level progress.

It was not a straight-line progress either, he noted.
Troy knew the warehouse section of Tikil well enough
to be certain with every block they passed that Zul
was taking a round-about way. Why? A sidelong glance
at the other's closed face argued that this was another
question Zul was not going to answer.

-Troy settled back as far as he could in a seat adjusted
to Zul's comfort, not his own, and waited for further
enlightenment. Once more he was conscious of activity
in the cage, mental activity. It was no longer directed
toward him, but at their surroundings. Troy's breath
caught in a tiny gasp as he realized—picking im-
pressions and hints out of those vague, strange cur-
rents—that the occupants of the cage were engrossed
in studying tlieir new surroundings. Yet how could
they see through the thickly padded covering of the
cage—unless that covering was not what it seemed to
superficial examination?