come in yet, Vali?" called Lori.

"She's still talking to Mars City," said Shaan, entering the kitchen.

Lori was standing at the stove, her back to him. He reached her in a single floating stride. Her shorts-clad rump presented the best target, and he jabbed the needle into it.

She straightened with a yelp, and he snatched the heat-gun from her holster at the same time. Whirling on him, she grappled with him, but he held the gun above his head, out of her reach, until she collapsed in his arms.

He laid the heat-guns together on the radio table and carried the girls into a bedroom across the hall. He stretched the still figures side by side on a bed and pulled a sheet up to their chins.

He would have to ambush their father and get the groundcar. He stepped back into the hall, closing the door behind him.

"You're covered with a heat-gun, Robbo Shaan," said a man's voice from the front door.

The red-headed man, still in his marsuit but unhelmeted, stood just inside the front door pointing the gun at Shaan. There was death in his eyes.

"I suppose you're MkDowl," said Shaan carefully. It had to be. Of course, MkDowl's marshelmet radio would have been tuned to the dome channel and he'd have heard what Mars City was telling Vali.

"What have you done to my girls?" demanded MkDowl ominously. "Tell me, before I kill you."

"I've been trying to help them," said Shaan calmly. "I believe it's something they ate for lunch, just before I got here. They're pretty sick. I put them to bed."

Alarm appeared on MkDowl's face. Turning his back on the man, Shaan went back into the bedroom. Gun in hand, MkDowl followed him hastily.

"Lori! Vali!" cried MkDowl at the sight of his unconscious daughters. Anxiously, he brushed past Shaan.

Shaan hit him behind the head with the edge of his palm as he passed. MkDowl pitched forward, and Shaan leaped to catch the gun that arced from his hand. When MkDowl sat up, dazed, a moment later, Shaan had him covered.

"Your girls are under suspensene," said Shaan. "I'm not going to hurt any of you. I just want a marsuit and your groundcar."

He motioned with the 

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