ies were even worse
than that one."

"Well, I'd like to use a heat-gun on the whole lot of them, turned
down to where it'd just fry them medium-rare," Dalla said. "And for
whoever's back of this, take him to Second Level Khiftan and sell him
to the priests of Fasif."

"Too bad you're not coming back from your vacation, instead of
starting out. Chief's Assistant Verkan," Skordran Kirv said. "This is
too big for me to handle alone, and I'd sooner work under you than
anybody else Chief Tortha sends in."

"Vall!" Dalla cried in indignation. "You're not going to just report
on this and then walk away from it, are you?"

"But, darling," Vall replied, in what he hoped was a convincing show
of surprise. "You don't want our vacation postponed again, do you? If
I get mixed up in this, there's no telling when I can get away, and by
the time I'm free, something may come up at Rhogom Institute that you
won't want to drop--"

"Vall, you know perfectly well that I wouldn't be happy for an instant
on the Dwarma Sector, thinking about this--"

"All right, then; let's forget about the vacation. You want to stay on
for a while and help me with this? It'll be a lot of hard work, but
we'll be together."

"Yes, of course. I want to do something to smash those devils. Vall,
if you'd heard some of the things they did to those poor people--"

"Well, I'll have to go back to PolTerm, as soon as I'm reasonably well
filled in on this, and report to Tortha Karf and tell him I've taken
charge. You can stay here and help with these interrogations; I'll be
back in about ten hours. Then, we can go to Kholghoor East India
SecReg HQ to talk to Ranthar Jard. We may be able to get something
that'll help us on that end--"

"You may be able to have your vacation before too long, Dr. Hadron,"
Skordran Kirv told her. "Once we capture one of their conveyers, the
instrument panel'll tell us what time line they're working from, and
then we'll have them."

"There's an Indo-Turanian Sector parable about a snake charmer who
thought he was picking up his snake and found that he had hold of an
elephant's tail," Vall said. "That might be a good thing to bear in
mind, till we find out just what we have picked up."

[Illustration:]

* * * * *

Coming down a hallway on the hundred and seventh floor of the
Management wing of the Paratime Building, Yandar Yadd paused to
admire, in the green mirror of the glassoid wall, the jau