He drove the aircar back to where he had left Miller in the Secretary's car, and transferred the unconscious man to the rear seat of the aircab. He looked around; no one in sight. Good, he thought. Then, in direct violation of the law, he lifted the aircar and headed into the night sky. The moon was bright overhead; the time was running short.

The Governor's palace was over a hundred and fifty miles away. Stone figured he'd make it with very little time to spare. He set the autopilot, and reached back with one big hand to pick up Miller by his lapels.

"Wake up, Miller!"

The fat man shook his head groggily and opened one eye. He groaned.

Stone slapped him across the face, just hard enough to sting. "Come on, damn you, wake up!"

"Lemme alone," Miller murmured. A sharp blow with an open hand brought him to some attention. "Leggo."

Stone shook him until his head wobbled. "Get up and look alive. I want to talk to you."

"I ain't sayin' nothin'," Miller said sullenly. "I don't know nothin', and I can't tell you a thing."

A few seconds' quick persuasion and he had changed his mind. "All right!" he yelled. "All right! I ain't got anything to lose, anyhow, unless you want to get me for pickin' your pocket."

"I won't prosecute you if you talk," Kendall promised.

"Okay," Miller grunted. "You won't live to use the information anyway." He sat up and rubbed his jaw. "The Secretary owns a lot of stock in the colony that's making antivirotic drugs on Vescalor IX. He wanted to put Rastol III out of commission so that the drugs would have to be bought from Vescalor IX. So he framed this alien Galth and had him sentenced to the execution chamber. He knew what would happen if the Government executed a Rastolian."

Stone pounded his fist against the seat. "Don't the lives of a thousand innocent people mean anything to him?"

"I never asked him, mister."

Stone started to lash out angrily at Miller, then pulled back the fist. "Then Galth didn't kill the Earthman?"

"Nope. Penowski did. The tall guy who was with me in the Secretary's place."

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