o. This spaceship won't fly till someone from Sector comes out to pull
the block." Lanko pointed. "This is Genro Kir. He was refereeing a sort
of battle game between a couple of his companions."

Lanko herded Kir in front of him, and entered his own flier. He placed
the equipment kit on a shelf, and sat down. Banasel perched on his
workbench.

"What kind of a setup did these jokers have?"

"Well, you can review the tapes later and get a few of the details, but
here's the general idea:

"Genro Kir and his two companions made planetfall some years back. They
didn't know it was a discovered planet, and failed to note any evidence
of our presence. Somehow, we missed them, too, for which we should hang
our heads.

"Anyway, they checked the planet, found it was suitable to their
purpose, and decided that Koree Buron and Sira Nal could use it as a
playing board. Seems they had a bet on, and their last game was
inconclusive. Both of the involved civilizations collapsed.

"Each of them selected a portion of the habitable part of the eastern
continent as a primary base. Buron took the east, and that left the west
to Nal. It so happens that the central portion of the continent is
difficult to pass, and that fitted in with their plans. You remember the
desert and mountain ranges, of course? Well, so far as I can discover,
there was virtually no contact before the arrival of these three prizes
of ours. And after their arrival, they made sure that there would be no
contact--not until they wanted it.

"Of course, deserts can be crossed, and mountains can be climbed, but
our three boys fixed it so it would be fatal for any native to try it.
Then, each of the two contestants set to work to build up the war
potential of his part of the continent.

"In the meantime, Genro was acting as referee. He's been checking the
progress of the two contestants, and making sure that neither of them
sneaks into the territory of the other to upset something, or commits
any other breach of rules."

Banasel slid off his bench. "Atmosphere of mutual trust, I see."

"Precisely."

"Where do the Kondaran priests come in?"

"Oh, those two aren't going to confine the final stage of their game to
the one continent. That's just the starting point--the home base. And
what they're doing now is just the opening of the game. The end game
will decide control of the entire planet. Sira Nal's just getting off to
an early start, that's all."

"This is le