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Silent, unseen, we drifted above him as he groped through the forest. At last he came to a clearing. He burrowed madly into the soil.
"Dive!" I yelled. "Fall on him! Quick!"
"Cuidado, Nick! He'll get away!" echoed Alda.
We plunged at him, but in a twinkling he was gone.
"Bom dia!" I cried in dismay.
"Didn't you get him?" asked Alda.
"No!" I replied. "Where did he go?"
We could not see a thing. Our bottles were broken, and we had neglected to bring a regular flashlight along. We called for lights, and in a moment a guard approached. "Coming, senhor!" he called.
Suddenly, Alda uttered a cry. "Vem aqui, Nick! That's how he escaped! A hole in the ground, just big enough for an Asternoid to squeeze through!"
"They bored this hole with a disintegrator, Alda!" I announced.
I ordered a desintegrador to be slung on two lifters. In a few moments, the heavy projector was swung on an anti-gravity device.
"You take command of the troops," I told Alda. "I'll radio directions to you as I make my progress!"
The rock and earth melted to nothingness before me as I followed the bore the Asternoids had made. Above, in the air, Alda's scouts reported no sign of the enemy.
Shortly after, Alda appeared in person.
"Olá, Nick," she greeted me. I flew back and came down to visit you---tired?"
"Yeah!" I retorted. "The Asternoids must have come up somewhere. We've just got to follow this tunnel of theirs until we catch up to them."
But before I could turn on the desintegrador beams again, the walls around us collapsed with a terrible explosion.
"Fight!" I cried. "Fight your way out of it!"
Alda cried out in pain but at last we got clear.
"Está bem!" I cried. "I thought we were done that time, Alda!"
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