All they needed was a lost search party, he thought, wearily. That would bring more Floaters down to investigate. Such a situation could be more of a calamity than any they’d ever faced. He looked up. The sky was darkening. Window became aware of a familiar inner sense of motion … activity approaching … still some distance away. He closed his eyes. The inner darkness vibrated, trembled, broke, and a miniature image in full color formed—the searchers’ copter.

Mentally Window enlarged the picture, then his consciousness entered it. There were the same three women he’d spoken to yesterday. He picked up their thoughts and conversation at once, so he really couldn’t differentiate between what was said or only mentally decided upon. He grinned: they weren’t going to return, that much was clear. With typical Floaters’ arrogance, they didn’t think that he and his men could possibly find the boy if they hadn’t.

He laughed suddenly, discovering deeper reasons beneath their consciousness. They’d stayed on Earth later than they’d planned in a last attempt to find Proteus, and they felt uneasy about landing at the dig at night with men around who weren’t under their thumb. Besides, they were convinced that the skylevator simply malfunctioned the day Proteus disappeared, releasing itself and leaving evidence of the unauthorized trip on its log—a coincidence that led them to a futile Earth search.

Again their prejudice came into play: they should have known that a boy wouldn’t be daring enough to attempt such a journey. Now they were convinced that he was hiding someplace in the floating city, where they should have concentrated their efforts all along.

It was odd, Window thought, but their prejudice against men did annoy him, even though he understood its roots. But prejudice itself, the sensed feel of it, had a bitter shape to the inner senses. It felt like a prickly bush, whose needles jabbed against his own soft acquiescence to all forms of life. Enough. There was no need to wait the actual appearance of the copter in the sky. It would not stop. They’d already notified the floating city hours ago, and a skylevator would be picking up the search party, copter and all.

He kicked at some debris, went inside one of the small shacks ostensibly used for the dig, pressed a portion of the woodwork, and crossed to the center of the floor. At once a trapdoor opened. He went down the few stairs to the elevator which dropped him quickly and directly to the inner dig, where Proteus would be waiting.

Proteus heard him coming and leapt to his feet. He was full of questions.