f the policemen pointed,
and Vall's eyes followed his arm. The ship that had been transposed in
in the big conveyer was falling, blown in half; as he looked, both
sections hit the ground several miles away. A strange ship, a
freighter, was coming in fast, and as he watched, a blue spark winked
from her bow as a heavy-duty blaster was activated. There was another
explosion, overhead; they all ran for shelter as Vall's
command-conveyer disintegrated into falling scrap-metal. At once, all
the other conveyers which were on antigrav began flashing and
vanishing. That was the right, the only, thing to do, he knew. But it
was leaving him and his men isolated and under attack.

* * * * *

"So that was it," Dalgroth Sorn, the Paratime Commissioner for
Security said, relieved when Tortha Karf had finished.

"Yes, and I'll repeat it under narco-hyp, too," Tortha Karf added.

"Oh, don't talk that way, Karf," Dalgroth Sorn scolded. He was at
least a century Tortha Karf's senior; he had the face of an elderly
and sore-toothed lion. "You wanted to keep this prisoner under wraps
till you could mind-pump him, and you wanted the Organization to think
Salgath was alive and talking. I approve both. But--"

He gestured to the viewscreen across the room, tuned to a pickup back
of the Speaker's chair in the Council Chamber. Tortha Karf turned a
knob to bring the sound volume up.

"Well. I'm raising this point," a member from the Management seats in
the center was saying, "because these earlier charges of illegal
arrest and illegal detention are part and parcel with the charges
growing out of the telecast last evening."

"Well, that telecast was a fake; that's been established," somebody on
the left heckled.

"Councilman Salgath's confession on the evening of One-Six-Two Day
wasn't a fake, the Management supporter, Nanthav Skov, retorted.

"Well, then why was it necessary to fake the second one?"

A light began winking on the big panel in front of the Speaker, Asthar
Varn.

"I recognize Councilman Hasthor Flan," Asthar said.

"I believe I can construct a theory that will explain that," Hasthor
Flan said. "I suggest that when the Paratime Police were questioning
Councilman Salgath under narco-hypnosis, he made statements
incriminating either the Paratime Police as a whole or some member of
the Paratime Police whom Tortha Karf had to protect--say somebody like
Assistant Verkan. So they just killed hi