"Police car coming for us; it's probably on the landing stage now,"
Vall said. "Well, good-by, everybody. Coming, Dalla?"

* * * * *

They had a few minutes to wait, under the marquee, before the green
police aircar landed and came rolling across the rain-wet surface of
the landing stage. Crossing to it and opening the rear door, he put
Dalla in and climbed in after her, slamming the door. It was only then
that he saw Tortha Karf hunched down in the rear seat. He motioned
them to silence, and did not speak until the car was rising above the
building.

"I wanted to fill you in on this, as soon as possible," he said. "Your
hunch about Salgath Trod was good; just a few minutes before I called
you, he called me. He says this slave trade is the work of something
he calls the Organization; says he's been taking orders from them for
years. His attack on the Management and motion for a censure-vote
were dictated from Organization top echelon. Now he's convinced that
they're going to force him to make false accusations against the
Paratime Police and then kill him before he's compelled to repeat his
charges under narco-hypnosis. So he's offered to surrender and trade
information for protection."

"How much does he know?" Vall asked.

Tortha Karf shook his head. "Not as much as he claims to, I suppose;
he wouldn't want to reduce his own trade-in value. But he's been
involved in this thing for the last fifteen years, and with his