oused the
dueling machine was a narrow gallery. Before the machine had been
installed, the chamber had been a lecture hall in Acquatainia's
largest university. Now the rows of students' seats, the lecturer's
dais and rostrum were gone. The chamber held only the machine, the
grotesque collection of consoles, control desks, power units,
association circuits, and booths where the two antagonists sat.

In the gallery--empty during ordinary duels--sat a privileged handful
of newsmen.

"Time limit is up," one of them said. "Dulaq didn't get him."

"Yes, but he didn't get Dulaq, either."

The first one shrugged. "The important thing is that now Dulaq has to
fight Odal on his terms. Dulaq couldn't win with his own choice of
weapons and situation, so--"

"Wait, they're coming out."

Down on the floor below, Dulaq and his opponent emerged from their
enclosed booths.

One of the newsmen whistled softly. "Look at Dulaq's face ... it's
positively gray."

"I've never seen the Prime Minister so shaken."

"And take a look at Kanus' hired assassin." The newsmen turned toward
Odal, who stood before his booth, quietly chatting with his seconds.

"Hm-m-m. There's a bucket of frozen ammonia for you."

"He's enjoying this."

One of the newsmen stood up. "I've got a deadline to meet. Save my
seat."

He made his way past the guarded door, down the rampway circling the
outer walls of the building, to the portable tri-di transmitting unit
that the Acquatainian government had permitted for the newsmen on the
campus grounds outside the former lecture hall.

The newsman huddled with his technicians for a few minutes, then
stepped before the transmitter.

"Emile Dulaq, Prime Minister of the Acquataine Cluster and
acknowledged leader of the coalition against Chancellor Kanus of the
Kerak Worlds, has failed in the first part of his psychonic duel
against Major Par Odal of Kerak. The two antagonists are now
undergoing the routine medical and psychological checks before
renewing their duel."

By the time the newsman returned to his gallery seat, the duel was
almost ready to begin again.

Dulaq stood in the midst of a group of advisors before the looming
impersonality of the machine.

"You need not go through with the next phase of the duel immediately,"
his Minister of Defense was saying. "Wait until tomorrow. Rest and
calm yourself."

Dulaq's round face puckered into a frown. He cocked an eye at the
chief meditech, hovering