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imprisonment itself.
    The guard captain stood in front of the bars, glaring in at Jommy. “Don’t try anything.
    We’ll have two men stationed here on this level, and these cells were designed to hold the worst
    political criminals.”
    Jommy sat down on his cot, looking defeated. The secret police probably had hidden
    cameras somewhere. “Then obviously, it’s useless for us to try to escape.”
    “Glad you figured that out, Cross.” The guard walked briskly away, eager to break eye
    contact.
    Jommy had not given up, though. He wished he knew where his disintegrator weapon had
    been taken. That invention had saved Jommy’s life more than once; no doubt the secret police
    would disassemble it, analyze it, try to figure out how the weapon worked … but even Jommy
    had never been able to decipher his father’s intricate invention.
    Jommy suspected President Gray was in dire straits of his own right now, facing John Petty.
    But the arrest of the President wasn’t the worst crisis—the attack from the tendrilless slans was
    imminent. Jommy had risked everything to come to Gray’s palace in the first place, to deliver a
    warning. While humans wasted time and energy hunting down true slans, fearing the wrong
    enemy, the tendrilless ones moved freely in society, preparing for a complete and violent
    takeover. The attack would occur very soon. Pleased with his little victory, Petty would not be
    watching for another danger coming from the skies. Earth would be completely unprepared.
    Therefore, he and Kathleen would have to do something about it.
    He closed his eyes and felt his golden tendrils move at the back of his head, rising into the
    air. He concentrated, broadcasting his thoughts like radio signals. Kathleen, can you hear me ?
    He waited, felt a tingle, then a familiar presence.
    Yes, Jommy. I’m here. I’m close. But I can’t see you or touch you .
    Jommy felt the urgency build within him. We’ve got to get out of here. We have to find
    President Gray, and we have to alert the Earth defenses about the tendrilless attack .
    Kathleen’s mind was also in turmoil. We can’t do anything trapped in these cells .
    Kathleen’s presence in his mind strengthened him. He looked around his cell, saw nothing
    he could use as a weapon. He had only a cot, a sink, and a hygiene station; no mirror, no table,
    nothing else. Though his body was stronger than an average human’s, Jommy could not break
    his way out. The cell was impregnable. Therefore, the weakest point was the human factor.
    Jommy would have to “encourage” the two guards to open the door.
    He sent a thought message, summarizing what he wanted to do. Kathleen, follow my lead
    and transmit the same image. It’s got to be convincing .
    Together, separated by thick block walls, Jommy and Kathleen sent the same thunderous
    idea. It struck the two already frightened and suspicious guards. It took Jommy a moment to
    find their muddled centers of thought. The brains of the two guards were so closed off by walls
    of paranoia that he could barely get inside. But finally he played upon that irrational fear,
    sending an image of Jommy Cross using slan strength to tear a hole in the cell wall, ready to
    escape.
    The guards came running. “Open the door! We have to stop him.”
    “I told you slans were dangerous!”
    The lock clicked. The two men pulled the rattling bars aside, expecting to see a gaping hole
    and the prisoner escaping. Before the deceptive image could fade, Jommy launched himself
    forward like a boulder from a medieval catapult. He was not a brutal fighter, but he did have
    great physical strength and the element of surprise. He knocked the guards aside. As they
    squawked and tried to reconcile what they saw with what they’d been sure was happening,
    Jommy punched them both.
    He grabbed one man’s arm and yanked him inside the cell. He punched the other guard in
    the ear and then swung him into a heap atop his partner inside the small cell.