charlie cleared his throat. quite evidently, it wasn't charlie at all, but steve could think of the man in no other way, for down to the smallest physical detail, he was charlie. "that will suffice," he said. again, it was charlie's voice, but expressionless. "enough of bickering. you will all march with me toward those hills, and we have a long journey before sunset."

the nine-foot anthrovacs took up their positions one on each side of the column and one behind it, and no one disobeyed. once steve looked back over his shoulder and saw the purple mists had almost completely swallowed the frank buck.

then the irony of the situation struck steve and he smiled—almost. he'd come to ganymede after anthrovacs. but he'd left the satellite under an anthrovac guard! fine thing. a mighty hunter was he! clear across the universe to be bagged by his own game!

obviously, steve thought as they marched on, the blue day-star was not earth's sun. somehow, in a matter of moments, they'd left the solar system entirely. he knew that theories had been advanced about traveling through something called sub-space, something which could make flight to the farthest stars almost instantaneous, since sub-space existed outside the space-time continuum. and that wrenching from one spatial plane to another might explain the tremendous pain they'd undergone, too. but surely the frank buck had never been equipped for such flight. the whole concept of sub-space flight was strictly theoretical and hadn't even reached the drawing-board stage.

then how had it happened?

kevin had some vague, half-formed ideas on the subject, and he let steve know about them. "it's a puzzler, boy. they took us a long way, space alone knows how far. i don't pretend to know why; we can't figure that out, not yet. but i know this: they could not have done that without help. someone had to bring the ship."

"the anthrovacs?" steve suggested.

"not the anthrovacs. for all their handling neutron guns and taking the frank buck over, they're just big apes to me. maybe they were able to take the ship off ganymede, but no more than that. they had help, boy, and from the inside."

"who? who do you mean?"

"i'm not sure i know. but look at it this way. the gordak wasn't taken, the frank buck was. why? i'll tell you why, or at least i'll tell you one possibility. there were scores of men on each ship, but while the gordak had only one animal—the stone worm you got on mercury—the frank buck had dozens. all right so far, boy? well, here's what i think: whoever took the ship wanted both men and animals."

"i still don't understand."

"i'm not sure i do, either. let's get back a little. the frank buck, not the gordak, was taken. strange, isn't it, that just before that happened leclarc bolted our ranks and joined the enemy! does that mean leclarc had to be on the frank buck before anything happened? and where'd he get to, anyway? i haven't seen him since the fight; i don't think anyone has. now, a man spends years idolizing a woman—i've been around, and i think i told you leclarc would have done anything for captain moore. suddenly, he gets sulky because he's out of favor with her, and decides on a double-cross.

"it smells bad, boy. sure, he was sulky, but the leclarc i knew would have come crawling to captain moore, anyway. this one didn't." kevin paused, ran a hand through his red hair. "maybe it means he isn't the same man. maybe it means he's something like that thing which calls itself your brother. that's not charlie stedman and you know it. trouble is, boy, you can't admit it to yourself."

"i won't argue about it," steve replied. "but you're off the beam there. charlie doesn't remember me, but leclarc's memory seemed fine."

"that's true, steve. i can't explain it, except like this: whatever happened to both of them, we don't know a thing about it. maybe it works in a different way on different people. maybe because charlie was dead first, his personal memories were a loss, but leclarc's weren't because he might have been possessed alive."

"possessed?"

"yes, possessed. oh, not by spirits, that's for sure. but possessed nevertheless. i won't say the anthrovacs were possessed, for we don't know enough about them to begin with. but look at those other animals now, the ones that died. you won't deny that something took over their brains?"

"damned right i won't. but i still don't see how it all adds up."

"nor do i," said kevin. "unfortunately, the brutes seemed to have perished in transit from ganymede to here, wherever here is. it could be that the strain on their brain-tissue, with sentience and intelligence taking over where before only sentience had resided, was too great."

kevin paused, then concluded: "whatever the reason, whatever the reason for all of it—i think you'll find leclarc knows all about it."

the blue sun had neared the horizon and the purple mists had become cool and chilling at journey's end. it was then that they saw leclarc.