Riquol frowned. “What difference does that make?” he demanded. “Ilf is our grandson. Auris is related to us and our adopted daughter.”
Mr. Terokaw rubbed his chin.
“Mr. Bliman,” he said, “please explain to these people what the legal situation is.”
* * *
Mr. Bliman cleared his throat. He was a tall, thin man with fierce dark eyes, like a bird of prey. “Mr. and Mrs. Cholm,” he began, “I work for the Federation Government and am a specialist in adoptive procedures. I will make this short. Some months ago, Mr. Kugus Ovin filed the necessary papers to adopt his niece, Auris Luteel, citizen of Wrake. I conducted the investigation which is standard in such cases and can assure you that no official record exists that you have at any time gone through the steps of adopting Auris.”
“What?” Riquol came half to his feet. Then he froze in position for a moment, settled slowly back in his chair. “What is this? Just what kind of trick are you trying to play?” he said. His face had gone white.
Ilf had lost sight of Mr. Terokaw for a few seconds, because Uncle Kugus had suddenly moved over in front of the bench on which he and Auris were sitting. But now he saw him again and he had a jolt of fright. There was a large blue and silver gun in Mr. Terokaw’s hand, and the muzzle of it was pointed very steadily at Riquol Cholm.
“Mr. Cholm,” Mr. Terokaw said, “before Mr. Bliman concludes his explanation, allow me to caution you! I do not wish to kill you. This gun, in fact, is not designed to kill. But if I pull the trigger, you will be in excruciating pain for some minutes. You are an elderly man and it is possible that you would not survive the experience. This would not inconvenience us very seriously. Therefore, stay seated and give up any thoughts of summoning help . . . Kugus, watch the children. Mr. Bliman, let me speak to Mr. Het before you resume.”
He put his left hand up to his face, and Ilf saw he was wearing a wrist-talker. “Het,” Mr. Terokaw said to the talker without taking his eyes off Riquol Cholm, “you are aware, I believe, that the children are with us in the house?”
The wrist-talker made murmuring sounds for a few seconds, then stopped.
“Yes,” Mr. Terokaw said. “There should be no problem about it. But let me know if you see somebody approaching the area . . . ” He put his hand back down on the table. “Mr. Bliman, please continue.”
Mr. Bliman cleared his throat again.
“Mr. Kugus Ovin,” he said, “is now officially recorded as the parent by adoption of his niece, Auris Luteel. Since Auris has not yet reached the age where her formal consent to this action would be required, the matter is settled.”
“Meaning,” Mr. Terokaw added, “that Kugus can act for Auris in such affairs as selling the cutting rights on this tree farm. Mr. Cholm, if you are thinking of taking legal action against us, forget it. You may have had certain papers purporting to show that the girl was your adopted child filed away in the deposit vault of a bank. If so, those papers have been destroyed. With enough money, many things become possible. Neither you nor Mrs. Cholm nor the two children will do or say anything that might cause trouble to me. Since you have made no rash moves, Mr. Bliman will now use an instrument to put you and Mrs. Cholm painlessly to sleep for the few hours required to get you off this planet. Later, if you should be questioned in connection with this situation, you will say about it only what certain psychological experts will have impressed on you to say, and within a few months, nobody will be taking any further interest whatever in what is happening here today.
“Please do not think that I am a cruel man. I am not. I merely take what steps are required to carry out my purpose. Mr. Bliman, please proceed!”
Ilf felt a quiver of terror. Uncle Kugus was holding his wrist with one hand and Auris’ wrist with the other, smiling reassuringly down at them. Ilf darted a glance over to Auris’ face. She looked as white as his grandparents but she was making no attempt to squirm away from Kugus, so Ilf stayed quiet, too. Mr. Bliman stood up, looking more like a fierce bird of prey than ever, and stalked over to Riquol Cholm, holding something in his hand that looked unpleasantly like another gun. Ilf shut his eyes. There was a moment of silence, then Mr. Terokaw said, “Catch him before he falls out of the chair. Mrs. Cholm, if you will just settle back comfortably . . . ”
There was another moment of silence. Then, from beside him, Ilf heard Auris speak.
It wasn’t regular speech but a quick burst of thin, rattling gabble, like human speech speeded up twenty times or so. It ended almost immediately.
“What’s that? What’s that?” Mr. Terokaw said, surprised.
Ilf’s eyes flew open as something came in through the window with a whistling shriek. The two humbugs were in the room, brown blurs flicking here and there, screeching like demons. Mr. Terokaw exclaimed something in a loud voice and jumped up from the chair, his gun swinging this way and that. Something scuttled up Mr. Bliman’s back like a big spider, and he yelled and spun away from Meldy Cholm lying slumped back in her chair. Something ran up Uncle Kugus’ back. He yelled, letting go of Ilf and Auris, and pulled out a gun of his own. “Wide aperture!” roared Mr. Terokaw, whose gun was making loud, thumping noises. A brown shadow swirled suddenly about his knees. Uncle Kugus cursed, took aim at the shadow and fired.
“Stop that, you fool!” Mr. Terokaw shouted. “You nearly hit me.”
“Come,” whispered Auris, grabbing Ilf’s arm. They sprang up from the bench and darted out the door behind Uncle Kugus’ broad back.
“Het!” Mr. Terokaw’s voice came bellowing down the hall behind them. “Up in the air and look out for those children! They’re trying to get away. If you see them start to cross the road, knock `em out. Kugus—after them! They may try to hide in the house.”
Then he yowled angrily, and his gun began making the thumping noises again. The humbugs were too small to harm people, but their sharp little teeth could hurt and they seemed to be using them now.
“In here,” Auris whispered, opening a door. Ilf ducked into the room with her, and she closed the door softly behind them. Ilf looked at her, his heart pounding wildly.
Auris nodded at the barred window. “Through there! Run and hide in the grove. I’ll be right behind you . . . ”
“Auris! Ilf!” Uncle Kugus called in the hall. “Wait—don’t be afraid. Where are you?” His voice still seemed to be smiling. Ilf heard his footsteps hurrying along the hall as he squirmed quickly sideways between two of the thick wooden bars over the window, dropped to the ground. He turned, darted off towards the nearest bushes.
He heard Auris gabble something to the humbugs again, high and shrill, looked back as he reached the bushes and saw her already outside, running towards the shrubbery on his right. There was a shout from the window. Uncle Kugus was peering out from behind the bars, pointing a gun at Auris. He fired. Auris swerved to the side, was gone among the shrubs. Ilf didn’t think she had been hit.
“They’re outside!” Uncle Kugus yelled. He was too big to get through the bars himself.
Mr. Terokaw and Mr. Bliman were also shouting within the house. Uncle Kugus turned around, disappeared from the window.
“Auris!” Ilf called, his voice shaking with fright.
“Run and hide, Ilf!” Auris seemed to be on the far side of the shrubbery, deeper in the Queen Grove.
Ilf hesitated, started running along the path that led to Sam’s sleeping pit, glancing up at the open patches of sky among the treetops. He didn’t see the aircar with the man Het in it. Het would be circling around the Queen Grove now, waiting for the other men to chase them into sight so he could knock them out with something. But they could hide inside Sam’s shell and Sam would get them across the road. “Auris, where are you?” Ilf cried.
Her voice came low and clear from behind him. “Run and hide, Ilf!”
Ilf looked back. Auris wasn’t there but the two humbugs were loping up the path a dozen feet away. They darted past Ilf without stopping, disappeared around the turn ahead. He could hear the three men yelling for him and Auris to come back. They were outside, looking around for them now, and they seemed to be coming closer.