bank this morning?"

"Why, just depositing some of my stuff in a safety deposit box," he
said, surprised. "Why?"

"How did you get your own box so quickly?"

"What do you mean so quickly? I went in yesterday and asked if one was
available, and the girl clerk signed me up for it, and said I could get
entry today."

"Oh, I see. I was told it was done like you already had a box
and ... uh ... wondered about it."

Hanlon reached in his pocket and threw a key onto the desk "Go look in
it for yourself if you think it's important. And incidentally," he said
contemptuously, "I've known all day long I was being shadowed." But was
instantly sorry he had said that last.

For there came a deadly coldness in the leader's tone, and a gleam in
those hard eyes that boded ill for someone. "I see. Well, let it pass."
He pushed the key back toward Hanlon, who pocketed it thankfully. His
bluff had worked. This was the key to his own box, of course; his master
key was in a hidden pocket in the cuff of his trousers.

The leader sank back into his chair and was silent for long minutes,
thinking deeply, while Hanlon waited patiently, still trying to get some
glimmering of thought from that unreadable mind, still frustrated almost
to the point of despair that he couldn't.

Finally the man spoke, but not to Hanlon. "Panek, you and the others go
find Rellos and bring him here."

When they were alone, the leader leaned forward and spoke earnestly
to Hanlon, yet watching him carefully as he did so. "I like you,
Hanlon, and I'm going to test you out. I am not too sure of you, yet,
but if I become so, you can go far--very, very far with me. This
Rellos I sent for is the man who was shadowing you today. I cannot--I
_will not_!" he spat venomously, "abide failure or incompetence. I am
assigning you the pleasant little task of seeing that some sort of
an ... uh ... accident happens to Rellos. And as I think about it, it
might as well be a ... uh ... permanent one."

Hanlon's stomach curled up so tightly it hurt, but he strove manfully
not to let his feelings show in his face. He'd had an instant's inkling
of what the proposal was going to be, and it was a measure of his
stability that he succeeded in keeping his mask up.

He knew starkly that this time he would have to go through with a
killing, or else give up this line of research. For he knew that if he
did not kill this man, this way was closed to him. And if he dropped
out, but gave t