rominent Konkrookans"--he named half a dozen--"who've
been made to talk, and a number of others have come in voluntarily and
furnished information. Orgzild conceived the scheme in the beginning;
Rakkeed was just the messenger-boy. My face gets the color of the
Company trademark every time I think that the whole thing was planned
for over a year, right under our noses, even to the signal that was to
touch the whole thing off...."

"The poisoning of Sid Harrington, and our announcement of his death?"
von Schlichten asked.

"You figured that out yourself, sir? Well, that was it." Grinell went
on to elaborate, while von Schlichten tried to keep the impatience out
of his face. Beside him, Paula Quinton was fidgeting, too; she was
thinking, as he was, of what King Orgzild and Prince Gorkrink were
doing now. "And I know positively that the order for the poisoning of
Sid Harrington came from the Keegarkan Embassy here, and was passed
down through Gurgurk and Keeluk to this geek here who actually put the
poison in the whiskey."

"Yes. I agree that Keegark should be wiped out, and I'd like to have
an immediate estimate on the time it'll take to build a nuclear bomb
to do the job. One of the old-fashioned plutonium fission A-bombs will
do quite well."

Everybody turned quickly. There was a momentary silence, and then
Colonel Evan Colbert, of the Fourth Kragan Rifles, the senior officer
under Themistocles M'zangwe, found his voice.

"If that's an order, general, we'll get it done. But I'd like to
remind you, first, of the Company policy on nuclear weapons on this
planet."

"I'm aware of that policy. I'm also aware of the reason for it. We've
been compelled, because of the lack of natural fuel on Uller, to set
up nuclear power reactors and furnish large quantities of plutonium to
the geeks to fuel them. The Company doesn't want the natives here
learning of the possibility of using nuclear energy for destructive
purposes. Well, gentlemen, that's a dead issue. They've learned it,
thanks to our people on Niflheim, and unless my estimate is entirely
wrong, King Orgzild already has at least one First-Century
Nagasaki-type plutonium bomb. I am inclined to believe that he had at
least one such bomb, probably more, at the time when orders were sent
to his embassy here, for the poisoning of Governor-General
Harrington."

With that, he selected a cigarette from his case, offered it to Paula,
and snapped his lighter. She had hers lit