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But listen " Ross caught her shoulders in a taut grip, pulled her around to face him, his eyes hot and almost angry as they held hers, "don't let yourself be seen " He repeated the cardinal rule of Agents in new territory. "We don't dare risk discovery." Karara nodded and he could see that she understood, was aware of the importance of that warning. "Do you want Tino-rau or Taua?"
"Ross, they can understand him! Tino-rau and Taua can understand him!" "You mean, they understand this language?" Ross found that fantastic, awesome as the abilities of the dolphins were. "No, his mind. It's his mind, Ross. Somehow he thinks in patterns they can pick up and read! They do that, you know, with a few of us, but not in the same way. This is more direct, clearer! They're so excited!"
The Baldies were there; they murdered the kin of these men. The odds are they reached there by some form of sub. Send one of the dolphins to see what is happening and if they are still there...." Karara asked no more questions, but whistled to the dolphin. With a flip of tail Tino-rau took off.
"What happened?" He turned to Vistur for enlightenment. "As a salkar it leaps now and then above the surface. But that is no salkar. Unless, Ross, you who say you are from the sea have servants unlike any finned one we have drawn in by net or line before this day." The dolphins! Could Tino-rau or Taua or both be in steady pursuit of the ships?
Ross waved vigorously, but no hand replied from the skiff. Though it came steadily onward, the three cruisers its apparent goal. "Karara!" Ross called. Then side by side with Tino-rau were two wet heads, two masked faces showing as the swimmers trod water Karara and Loketh. "Drop ropes!" Ross gave that order as if he rather than Torgul commanded.
Adjusting his mask, Ross dropped into the water, cutting away from the reef and then turning to swim parallel with it. Tino-rau matched him as he went, guiding Ross to a second break in the reef, toward the shore some distance from where the conflict of the salkars still made a hideous din in the night.
But there is woman-power, too. And we have perhaps even sharper sight. But this is a good idea, Gordon. Let me see " she began to tell off names on her fingers, "PaKeeKee, Vaeoha, Hori, Liliha, Taema, Ui, Hono'ura they are the best in the water. Me ... you, Gordon, Ross. That makes ten with keen eyes to look, and always there are Tino-rau and Taua.
Oddly enough the picklock to the captives' minds had been produced by the dolphins. Just as Tino-rau and Taua had formed a bridge of communication between the Terran and Loketh, so did they read and translate the thoughts of the galactic invaders. For the Baldies, among their own kind, were telepathic, vocalizing only to give orders to inferiors.
Torgul, Vistur, the two other cruiser captains, all there ... and Jazia. Ross swung his feet to the deck. A pep-shot headache was already beginning, but would wear off soon. There was, however, a concentration of tension in the cabin, and something must have driven Karara to use the drug. "What is it?" Karara fitted the medical kit into the compact carrying case. "Tino-rau has returned.
Ross reported what he had seen, what Tino-rau and Taua had learned from the prisoners taken at Kyn Add. And when he had finished, the three Foanna stood very still, their hands clasped one to the other. Though they were only an arm's distance from him, Ross had the feeling they had withdrawn from his time and world.
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