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Moderator's parkingterrace was something Telzey couldn't know. But if Halet and Dr. Droonwere released before the Moderator accepted her own version of whathad occurred, and the two reported the presence of wild crest cats inPort Nichay, there would be almost no possibility of keeping thesituation under control. Somebody was bound to make some idiotic move,and the fat would be in the fire....

  * * * * *

  Two things might be in her favor. The Moderator seemed to have thesort of steady nerve one would expect in a man who had bagged twoBaluit crest cats. The partly opened desk drawer beside him must havea gun in it; apparently he considered that a sufficient precautionagainst an attack by TT. He wasn't likely to react in a panickymanner. And the mere fact that he suspected Telzey of homicidaltendencies would make him give the closest attention to what she said.Whether he believed her then was another matter, of course.

  Slightly encouraged, Telzey began to talk. It did sound like athoroughly wild story, but the Moderator listened with an appearanceof intent interest. When she had told him as much as she felt he couldbe expected to swallow for a start, he said musingly, "So they weren'twiped out--they went into hiding! Do I understand you to say they didit to avoid being hunted?"

  Telzey chewed her lip frowningly before replying. "There's somethingabout that part I don't quite get," she admitted. "Of course I don'tquite get either why you'd want to go hunting ... twice ... forsomething that's just as likely to bag you instead!"

  "Well, those are, ah, merely the statistical odds," the Moderatorexplained. "If one has enough confidence, you see--"

  "I don't really. But the crest cats seem to have felt the same way--atfirst. They were getting around one hunter for every cat that gotshot. Humans were the most exciting game they'd ever run into.

  "But then that ended, and the humans started knocking them out withstunguns from aircars where they couldn't be got at, and hauling themoff while they were helpless. After it had gone on for a while, theydecided to keep out of sight.

  "But they're still around ... thousands and thousands of them!Another thing nobody's known about them is that they weren't only inthe Baluit mountains. There were crest cats scattered all through thebig forests along the other side of the continent."

  "Very interesting," the Moderator commented. "Very interesting,indeed!" He glanced towards the communicator, then returned his gazeto Telzey, drumming his fingers lightly on the desk top.

  She could tell nothing at all from his expression now, but she guessedhe was thinking hard. There was supposed to be no native intelligentlife in the legal sense on Jontarou, and she had been careful to saynothing so far to make the Baluit cats look like more than ratherexceptionally intelligent animals. The next--rather large--questionshould be how she'd come by such information.

  If the Moderator asked her that, Telzey thought, she could feel she'dmade a beginning at getting him to buy the whole story.

  "Well," he said abruptly, "if the crest cats are not extinct orthreatened with extinction, the Life Banks obviously have no claim onyour pet." He smiled confidingly at her. "And that's the reason you'rehere, isn't it?"

  "Well, no," Telzey began, dismayed. "I--"

  "Oh, it's quite all right, Miss Amberdon! I'll simply rescind thepermit which was issued for the purpose. You need feel no furtherconcern about that." He paused. "Now, just one question ... do youhappen to know where your aunt is at present?"

  * * * * *

  Telzey had a dead, sinking feeling. So he hadn't believed a word shesaid. He'd been stalling her along until the aircar could be found.

  She took a deep breath. "You'd better listen to the rest of it."

  "Why, is there more?" the Moderator asked politely.

  "Yes. The important part! The kind of creatures they are, theywouldn't go into hiding indefinitely just because someone was afterthem."

  Was there a flicker of something beyond watchfulness in hisexpression. "What would they do, Miss Amberdon?" he asked quietly.

  "If they couldn't get at the men in the aircars and couldn'tcommunicate with them"--the flicker again!--"they'd start looking forthe place the men came from, wouldn't they? It might take them someyears to work their way across the continent and locate us here inPort Nichay. But supposing they did it finally and a few thousand ofthem are sitting around in the parks down there right now? They couldcome up the side of these towers as easily as they go up the side of amountain. And supposing they'd decided that the only way to handle theproblem was to clean out the human beings in Port Nichay?"

  The Moderator stared at her in silence a few seconds. "You're saying,"he observed then, "that they're rational beings--above the CriticalI.Q. level."

  "Well," Telzey said, "legally they're rational. I checked on that.About as rational as we are, I suppose."

  "Would you mind telling me now how you happen to know this?"

  "They told me," Telzey said.

  He was silent again, studying her face. "You mentioned, Miss Amberdon,that they have been unable to communicate with other human beings.This suggests then that you are a xenotelepath...."

  "I am?" Telzey hadn't heard the term before. "If it means that I cantell what the cats are thinking, and they can tell what I'm thinking,I guess that's the word for it." She considered him, decided she hadhim almost on the ropes, went on quickly.

  "I looked up the laws, and told them they could conclude a treaty withthe Federation which would establish them as an Affiliated Species ...and that would settle everything the way they would want it settled,without trouble. Some of them believed me. They decided to wait untilI could talk to you. If it works out, fine! If it doesn't"--she felther voice falter for an instant--"they're going to cut loose fast!"

  The Moderator seemed undisturbed. "What am I supposed to do?"

  "I told them you'd contact the Council of the Federation on Orado."

  "Contact the Council?" he repeated coolly. "With no more proof forthis story than your word Miss Amberdon?"

  Telzey felt a quick, angry stirring begin about her, felt her facewhiten.

  "All right," she said "I'll give you proof! I'll have to now. Butthat'll be it. Once they've tipped their hand all the way, you'llhave about thirty seconds left to make the right move. I hope youremember that!"

  He cleared his throat. "I--"

  "NOW!" Telzey said.

  Along the walls of the balcony garden, beside the ornamental flowerstands, against the edges of the rock pool, the crest cats appeared.Perhaps thirty of them. None quite as physically impressive as IronThoughts who stood closest to the Moderator; but none very far fromit. Motionless as rocks, frightening as gargoyles, they waited, eyesglowing with hellish excitement.

  "This is _their_ council, you see," Telzey heard herself saying.

  The Moderator's face had also paled. But he was, after all, an oldshikari and a senior diplomat. He took an unhurried look around thecircle, said quietly, "Accept my profound apologies for doubting you.Miss Amberdon!" and reached for the desk communicator.

  Iron Thoughts swung his demon head in Telzey's direction. For aninstant, she picked up the mental impression of a fierce yellow eyeclosing in an approving wink.

  "... An open transmitter line to Orado," the Moderator was saying intothe communicator. "The Council. And snap it up! Some very importantvisitors are waiting."

  The offices of Jontarou's Planetary Moderator became an extremely busyand interesting area then. Quite two hours passed before it occurredto anyone to ask Telzey again whether she knew where her aunt was atpresent.

  Telzey smote her forehead.

  "Forgot all about that!" she admitted, fishing the sportscar's keysout of the pocket of her sunbriefs. "They're out on the parkingplatform...."

  * * * * *

  The preliminary treaty arrangements between the Federation of the Huband the new Affiliated Species of the Planet of Jontarou were formallyratified two weeks later, the ceremony taking place on Jontarou, i
nthe Champagne Hall of the Shikaris' Club.

  Telzey was able to follow the event only by news viewer in hership-cabin, she and Halet being on the return trip to Orado by then.She wasn't too interested in the treaty's details--they conformedalmost exactly to what she had read out to Iron Thoughts and hisco-chiefs and companions in the park. It was the smooth bridging ofthe wide language gap between the contracting parties by a row ofinterpreting machines and a handful of human xenotelepaths which heldher attention.

  As she switched off the viewer, Halet came wandering in from theadjoining cabin.

  "I was watching it, too!" Halet observed. She smiled. "I was hoping tosee dear Tick-Tock."

  Telzey looked over at her. "Well, TT would hardly be likely to show upin Port Nichay," she said. "She's having too good a time now findingout what life in the Baluit range is like."

  "I suppose so," Halet agreed doubtfully, sitting down on a hassock."But I'm glad she promised to get in touch with us again in a fewyears. I'll miss her."

  Telzey regarded her aunt with a reflective frown. Halet meant it quitesincerely, of course, she had undergone a profound change of heartduring the past two weeks. But Telzey wasn't without some doubts aboutthe actual value of a change of heart brought on by telepathic means.The learning process the crest cats had started in her mind appearedto have continued automatically several days longer than her ruggedteachers had really intended; and Telzey had reason to believe that bythe end of that time she'd developed associated latent abilities ofwhich the crest cats had never heard. She'd barely begun to get it allsorted out yet, but ... as an example ... she'd found it remarkablyeasy to turn Halet's more obnoxious attitudes virtually upside down.It had taken her a couple of days to get the hang of her aunt'spersonal symbolism, but after that there had been no problem.

  She was reasonably certain she'd broken no laws so far, though thesections in the law library covering the use and abuse of psionicabilities were veiled in such intricate and downright obscuringphrasing--deliberately, Telzey suspected--that it was really difficultto say what they did mean. But even aside from that, there were anumber of arguments in favor of exercising great caution.

  Jessamine, for one thing, was bound to start worrying about hersister-in-law's health if Halet turned up on Orado in her presentstate of mind, even though it would make for a far more agreeableatmosphere in the Amberdon household.

  "Halet," Telzey inquired mentally, "do you remember what an all-outstinker you used to be?"

  "Of course, dear," Halet said aloud. "I can hardly wait to tell dearJessamine how much I regret the many times I...."

  "Well," Telzey went on, still verbalizing it silently. "I think you'dreally enjoy life more if you were, let's say, about halfway betweenyour old nasty self and the sort of sickening-good kind you are now."

  "Why, Telzey!" Halet cried out with dopey amiability. "What adelightful idea!"

  "Let's try it," Telzey said.

  There was silence in the cabin for some twenty minutes then while shewent painstakingly about remolding a number of Halet's charactertraits for the second time. She still felt some misgivings about it;but if it became necessary, she probably could always restore the oldHalet _in toto_.

  These, she told herself, definitely were powers one should treat withrespect! Better rattle through law school first; then, with that outof the way, she could start hunting around to see who in theFederation was qualified to instruct a genius-level novice in theproper handling of psionics.

  * * * * *