Anna and Michael are held captive by the alien Nirikarr and accused of serious crimes. Their only escape is to become their agents and do their bidding on both worlds.
The Nirikarr give them three day’s leave to visit their families, plus a translocation device to travel between the worlds. It is this device more than anything that must be returned to the Nirikarr.
Nellarsoranios, Anna and Michael’s Nirikarr friend, hears the Spymaster’s plan to discredit them and goes to Earth to warn them. Nelli is too late; all three are captured and abandoned in a dark cellar on Anna’s planet. Then they find their Nirikarr travelling device is missing.
The only way to get to Nelli’s people in the southern hemisphere, is to cross the burning desert at the equator and they have only two days left. They join a camel train travelling by night, but the Spymaster paid a human cut-throat to follow and dispose of them. He got a job on the camel train and is waiting for his chance to act.
Can Pell get there in time to save them?