re sunk!" Zostha Olv grunted. "He'd never make a statement like
that unless he could prove it."

"... Something suspicious about the whole thing, from the beginning,"
the newsman was saying. "So I checked. If you recall, the actor
impersonating Salgath gestured rather freely with his hands, in
imitation of a well-known mannerism of the real Salgath Trod; at one
point, the ball of his right thumb was presented directly to the
pickup. Here's a still of that scene."

He stepped aside, revealing a viewscreen behind him; when he pressed a
button, the screen lighted; on it was a stationary picture of Kostran
Galth as Salgath Trod, his right hand raised in front of him.

"Now watch this. I'm going to step up the magnification, slowly, so
that you can be sure there's no substitution. Camera a little closer,
Trath!"

The screen in the background seemed to advance, until it filled the
entire screen. Yandar Yadd was still talking, out of the picture; a
metal-tipped pointer came into the picture, touching the right thumb,
which grew larger and larger until it was the only thing visible.

"Now here," Yandar Yadd's voice continued. "Any of you who are
familiar with the ancient science of dactyloscopy will recognize this
thumb as having the ridge-pattern known as a 'twin loop.' Even with
the high degree of magnification possible with the microgrid screen,
we can't bring out the individual ridges, but the pattern is
unmistakable. I ask you to memorize that image, while I show you
another right thumb print, this time a certified photo-copy of the
thumb print of the real Salgath Trod." The magnification was reduced a
little, a card was moved into the picture, and it was stepped up
again. "See, this thumb print is of the type known as a 'tented arch.'
Observe the difference."

"That does it!" Zostha Olv cried. "Karf, for the first and last time,
let me remind you that I opposed this lunacy from the beginning. Now,
what are we going to do next?"

"I suggest that we get to Headquarters as soon as we can," Tortha Karf
said. "If we wait too long, we may not be able to get in."

Yandar Yadd was back on the screen, denouncing Tortha Karf
passionately. Tortha went over and snapped it off.

"I suggest we transpose to PolTerm," Lovranth Rolk said. "It won't be
so easy for them to serve a summons on us there."

"You can go to PolTerm if you want to," Tortha Karf retorted. "I'm
going to stay here and fight back, and if they try to serve