f to sleep? Of course. Know another time they sometimes get it? When
they're snapping back out of a Moment of Truth, eh? I remembered
suddenly I'd felt a little jump like that while we were talking
to-day. Might have been a reflex of some kind. Of course, it didn't
occur to me at the time you could be pulling a lousy stunt like that
on old Duke. Why take a chance on getting your neck broken?

"But, sweetheart, that's the tie-in! Quillan hasn't told it straight.
He's got no backing. He's on his own. There's no gang outside
somewhere that knows all about our little deal. He got his information
right here, from you. And you got it from dumb old Duke, eh?"

"Duke," Reetal said quite calmly, "can I ask just one question?"

He stared bleakly at her a moment, then grinned. "It's my night to be
big-hearted, I guess. Go ahead."

"I'm not trying to argue. But it simply doesn't make sense. If I
learned about this operation you're speaking of from you, what reason
could I have to feed you Truth in the first place? There'd be almost a
fifty-fifty chance that you'd spot it immediately. Why should I take
such a risk? Don't you see?"

Fluel shrugged, dropped his cigarette and ground it carefully into the
carpet with the tip of his shoe.

"You'll start answering those questions yourself almost immediately,
sweetheart! Let's not worry about that now. Let me finish. Something
happened to Movaine couple of hours ago. Nobody's fault. And something
else happened to Marras Cooms just now. That puts me in charge of the
operation here. Nice, isn't it? When we found Cooms lying in the hall
with a hole through his stupid head, I told Baldy Perk it looked like
Bad News had thrown in with the Star boys and done it. Know Baldy?
He's Cooms' personal gun. Not what you'd call bright, and he's mighty
hot now about Cooms. I left him in charge on our level, with orders to
get Quillan the next time he shows up there. Well and good. The boys
know Bad News' rep too well to try asking him questions. They won't
take chances with him. They'll just gun him down together the instant
they see him."

He paused to scuff his shoe over the mark the cigarette had left on
the carpet, went on, "But there's Nome Lancion now. He kind of liked
Cooms, and he might get suspicious. When there's a sudden vacancy in
the organization like that. Nome takes a good look first at the man
next in line. He likes to be sure the facts are as stated.

"So now you know the kind of