lis Dulaq had
known and loved since childhood.

Dulaq turned and glanced at the sun. It was halfway down toward the
horizon, he judged. He had about three hours to find Odal. When he
did--kill or be killed.

_Of course no one is actually hurt. That is the beauty of the machine.
It allows one to settle a score, to work out aggressive feelings,
without either mental or physical harm._

Dulaq shrugged. He was a roundish figure, moon-faced, slightly stooped
shoulders. He had work to do. Unpleasant work for a civilized man, but
the future of the Acquataine Cluster and the entire alliance of
neighboring star systems could well depend on the outcome of this
electronically synthesized dream.

He turned and walked down the elevated avenue, marveling at the sharp
sensation of hardness that met each footstep on the paving. Children
dashed by and rushed up to a toyshop window. Men of commerce strode
along purposefully, but without missing a chance to eye the girls
sauntering by.

_I must have a marvelous imagination_, Dulaq thought smiling to
himself.

Then he thought of Odal, the blond, icy professional he was pitted
against. Odal was an expert at all the weapons, a man of strength and
cool precision, an emotionless tool in the hands of a ruthless
politician. But how expert could he be with a stat-wand, when the
first time he saw one was the moment before the duel began? And how
well acquainted could he be with the metropolis, when he had spent
most of his life in the military camps on the dreary planets of Kerak,
sixty light-years from Acquatainia?

No, Odal would be lost and helpless in this situation. He would
attempt to hide among the throngs of people. All Dulaq had to do was
to find him.

The terms of the duel restricted both men to the pedestrian walks of
the commercial quarter of the city. Dulaq knew the area intimately,
and he began a methodical hunt through the crowds for the tall,
fair-haired, blue-eyed Odal.

And he saw him! After only a few minutes of walking down the major
thoroughfare, he spotted his opponent, strolling calmly along a
crosswalk, at the level below.

Dulaq hurried down the next ramp, worked his way through the crowd,
and saw the man again. Tall and blond, unmistakable. Dulaq edged along
behind him quietly, easily. No disturbance. No pushing. Plenty of
time. They walked along the street for a quarter hour while the
distance between them slowly shrank from fifty feet to five.

Finally