* * *

"You called that one," Ryter was saying seven or eight minutes later,
"almost too well!"

Quillan shook his head, poked at the commodore's gun on the desk with
his finger, looked about the silent office and back at the door where
a small group of security men stood staring in at them.

"Three men gone without a sound!" he said. He indicated the glowing
disk of the ComWeb. "He had time enough to turn it on, not time enough
to make his call. Any chance of camouflaged portals in this section?"

"No," Ryter said. "I know the location of every portal in the
Executive Block. No number of men could have taken Velladon and the
two guards without a fight anyway. We'd have heard it. It didn't
happen that way."

"Which leaves," Quillan said, "one way it could have happened." He
jerked his head toward the door. "Will those men keep quiet?"

"If I tell them to."

"Then play it like this. Two guards have vanished. The Hlat obviously
did it. The thing's deadly. That'll keep every man in the group on the
alert every instant from now on. But we don't say Velladon has
vanished. He's outside in the Star at the moment, taking care of
something."

Ryter licked his lips. "What does that buy us?"

"If the Brotherhood's responsible for this--"

"I don't take much stock in coincidences," Ryter said.

"Neither do I. But the Hlat's an animal; it can't tell them it's
carried out the job. If they don't realize we suspect them, it gives
us some advantage. For the moment, we just carry on as planned, and
get rid of the Hlat in one way or another as the first step. The
thing's three times as dangerous as anyone suspected--except,
apparently, the Brotherhood. Get the life-detectors over here as soon
as you can, and slap a space-armor guard on the fifth level."

Ryter hesitated, nodded. "All right."

"Another thing," Quillan said, "Cooms may have the old trick in mind
of working from the top down. If he can take you out along with a few
other key men, he might have this outfit demoralized to the point of
making up for the difference in the number of guns--especially if the
Hlat's still on his team. You'd better keep a handful of the best boys
you have around here glued to your back from now on."

Ryter smiled bleakly. "Don't worry. I intend to. What about you?"

"I don't think they're planning on giving me any personal attention
at the moment. My organization is outside, not here. And it would look
odd to the Bro