The Martian Room, fifteen down, was a big place, almost of the space of one tower. It had been to one of the of the and of Mars who were the of Terran humanity. One whole of the room was a cine-solidograph screen, on which the of a Martian was projected; in the of about two hours, the from through and night to again.
It was high when they entered and a table; by the time they had their dinner, the night was and the of was the hills. They sat for a while, the light stronger, then got up and left the table.
There were five men at a table near them; they had come in the had dim, and the waiters were just their dishes. Two were Assassins, and the other three were of a Verkan Vall had learned to on any time-line—the arrogant, cocksure, ambitious, politician, who what is best for than else does, and who is that he is right and that with him is not only an but a as well. One was a man in a gold-laced cream-colored dress tunic; he had thick and a too-ready laugh. Another was a monkish-looking man who spoke and rolled his upward, as though at some vision. The third had the of in his black which was, among the Akor-Neb people, almost the only of age.
"Of it is; the whole thing is a fraud," the man was saying angrily. "But we can't prove it."
"Oh, Sirzob, here, can prove anything, if you give him time," the one laughed. "The trouble is, there isn't too much time. We know that that was a fake, by the Volitionalists, with Dr. Harnosh and this Dallona of Hadron as their tools. They the whole thing to that boy hypnotically, in advance, and then, on a signal, he out this communication. And then, of course, Dallona and this Assassin of hers ran off together, so that we'd be with or them, and so that they wouldn't be to about the on a detector."
A happy touched Verkan Vall's eyes. He each of his Assassins by an arm.
"Marnik, my back," he ordered. "Olirzon, at the table. Come on!"
Then he forward, the chairs of the man and the man with the and the man in the light tunic.
"You!" he barked. "I YOU."
The man stopped laughing and at him; then to his feet. His hand, toward his left armpit, stopped and to his as Olirzon a pistol at him. The others sat motionless.
"You," Verkan Vall continued, "are a complete, deliberate, malicious, and liar. The Lady Dallona of Hadron is a scientist of integrity, of her work. What's more, her father is one of my best friends; in his name, and in hers, I a full of the you have just made."
"Do you know who I am?" the one shouted.
"I know what you are," Verkan Vall back. Like most languages, the Akor-Neb speech an elaborate, delicately-shaded, and of abuse; Verkan Vall from it and at length. "And if I don't make myself verbally, we'll go to the object level," he added, a bowl of from in of the monkish-looking man and it across the table.
The was a dark brown, almost black. It of meat, and mushrooms, and slices of hard-boiled egg, and yellow Martian lichen. It produced, on the light tunic, a most effect.
For a moment, Verkan Vall was the would have an stroke, or an fit. Mastering himself, however, he jerkily.
"Marnark of Bashad," he himself. "When and where can my friends yours?"
"Lord Virzal of Verkan," the back. "Your friends can with mine here and now. I am by these Gentlemen-Assassins."
"I won't submit my friends to the of with them," Marnark retorted. "I that you be by of your own quality and mine."
"Oh, you do?" Olirzon in. "Well, is your personal to me, or to Assassins as a class? In the case, I'll to make a private project of you, as soon as I'm through with my present employment; if it's the latter, I'll report your to the Society. I'll see what Klarnood, our President-General, thinks of your views."
A had to around the table. Some of them were in dress, some were Assassins on the hotel payroll, and some were Assassins.
"Well, you won't have to look for him," one of the said, pushing through the to the table.
He was a man of middle age, to stoutness; he Verkan Vall think of a chocolate of Tortha Karf. The red on his was with gold lace, and, of black and a bullet, it and a dagger. He at Marnark of Bashad.
"Klarnood, President-General of the Society of Assassins," he announced. "Marnark of Bashad, did I you say that you members of the Society as to an of with your friends, on of this who has been to accept your challenge?" he demanded.
Marnark of Bashad's evaporation-loss. His almost servile.
"Not at all, Honorable Assassin-President," he protested. "But as I was going to ask these to me, I it would be more for the other to be by personal friends, also. In that way—"
"Sorry, Marnark," the gray-haired man at the table said. "I can't second you; I have a with the Lord Virzal, too." He rose and bowed. "Sirzob of Abo. Inasmuch as the Honorable Marnark is a guest at my table, an to him is an to me. In my quality as his host, I must from you, Lord Virzal."
"Why, gladly, Honorable Sirzob," Verkan Vall replied. This was and every moment. "Of course, your friend, the Honorable Marnark, of challenge; I'll take of you as soon as I have, shall we say, satisfied, him."
The and consecrated-looking man rose also, to Verkan Vall.
"Yirzol of Narva. I, too, have a with you, Lord Virzal; I cannot submit to the of having my food from in of me, as you just did. I also satisfaction."
"And rightly, Honorable Yirzol," Verkan Vall approved. "It looks like such good soup, too," he sorrowed, the of Marnark's tunic. "My will with yours immediately; your satisfaction, of course, must come after that of Honorable Sirzob."
"If I may intrude," Klarnood put in smoothly, "may I that as the Lord Virzal is by his Assassins, yours can all three of you at the same time. I will offer my own good offices as supervisor."
Verkan Vall and as to royalty. "An honor, Assassin-President: I am sure no one act in that more satisfactorily."
"Well, when would it be most to the details?" Klarnood inquired. "I am at your disposal, gentlemen."
"Why, here and now, while we're all together," Verkan Vall replied.
"I object to that!" Marnark of Bashad vociferated. "We can't make here; why, all these hotel people, from the manager down, are nothing but for the services!"
"Well, what's with that?" Verkan Vall demanded. "You that when you the Lady Dallona in their hearing."
"The Lord Virzal of Verkan is correct," Klarnood ruled. "And the for which you have him were also in public. By all means, let's discuss the now." He to Verkan Vall. "As the party, you have the choice of weapons; your opponents, then, have the right to name the under which they are to be used."
Marnark of Bashad another over that. The upon him by the Lord Virzal of Verkan was provocative, and therefore to a challenge; he, himself, had the right to name the weapons. Klarnood him.
"Do the other make the same claim?" Verkan Vall wanted to know.
"If they do, I won't allow it," Klarnood replied. "You Honorable Marnark, but the of him at Honorable Sirzob's table, and of Honorable Yirzol's at him, were not with to provoke. These have a right to challenge, but not to themselves provoked."
"Well, I choose knives, then," Marnark to say.
Verkan Vall thinly. He had learned knife-play among the masters of that art in all paratime, the Third Level Khanga of the Caribbean Islands.
"And we barefoot, to the waist, and without any in the left hand," Verkan Vall stipulated.
The Marnark his in anticipation. He Verkan Vall by pounds; he saw an easy victory ahead. Verkan Vall's own at these of his opponent's assurance.
"And as for Honorable Sirzob and Honorable Yirzol, I pistols," he added.
Sirzob and Yirzol a conference.
"Speaking for Honorable Yirzol and for myself," Sirzob announced, "we that the shall be twenty meters, that the pistols shall be loaded, and that fire shall be at will after the command."
"Twenty rounds, fire at will, at twenty meters!" Olirzon hooted. "You must think our principal's as a as you are!"
The four Assassins and a long about something, with and gesticulation. Klarnood, Verkan Vall's impatience, close to him and whispered:
"This is irregular; we must and be patient. They're on the outcome. You must do your best, Lord Virzal; you don't want your supporters to money."
He said it seriously, as though the outcome were otherwise a of to Verkan Vall.
Marnark wanted to discuss time and place, and that all three be at dawn, on the fourth landing stage of Darsh Central Hospital; that was to the wards, and that most just that hour.
"Certainly not," Verkan Vall vetoed. "We'll here and now; I don't going a of hundred miles to meet you at any such hour. We'll in the nearest that twenty meters' distance."
Marnark, Sirzob and Yirzol all in protest. Verkan Vall them down, on his knowledge of Akor-Neb customs. "The that shall be as as possible, and I on a interpretation. I'm not going to myself and Assassin-President Klarnood and these four Gentlemen-Assassins just to Statisticalist superstitions."
The manager of the hotel, to the Martian Room by the uproar, offered a the with the rooms; it was fifty long by five in width, was well-lighted and soundproof, and had a in which the and other the firing.
They repaired in a body, Klarnood up hotel on the way through the kitchen. Verkan Vall to the waist, off his boots, and Olirzon's knife. Its eight-inch was double-edged at the point, and its was with black to a good grip, and with gold wire. He approvingly, it with his around the cross-guard, and to meet Marnark of Bashad.
As he had expected, the politician was upon his to his antagonist. He with a sidling, spread-legged gait, his knife hand against his right and his left hand in front. Verkan Vall with pleased satisfaction; a wrist-grabber. Then he blinked. Why, the was actually his knife reversed, his little to the and his thumb on the pommel!
Verkan Vall to meet him, a at his knife hand with his own left, and then side-stepped to the right. As Marnark's left hand at his right wrist, his left hand against it and closed into a fist, with Marnark's left thumb of it, He gave a quick with his wrist, Marnark off balance.
Caught by surprise, Marnark stumbled, his knife away from Verkan Vall. As he forward, Verkan Vall on his left and the point of his knife into the of Marnark's neck, it as he it free. At the same time, he Marnark's thumb. The politician his and on his face, blood from his neck. He gave a or so, and was still.
Verkan Vall and the knife on the man's clothes—another Khanga gesture—and then returned it to Olirzon.
"Nice weapon, Olirzon," he said. "It my hand as though I'd been it."
"You used it as though you had, Lord Virzal," the Assassin replied. "Only eight from the time you closed with him."
Illustration
The of the hotel Klarnood had up now apparent; they advanced, took the of Marnark by the heels, and it out of the way. The others this with mixed emotions. The two were and frozen-faced. Their two Assassins, who had on Marnark, were chagrined. And Klarnood was looking at Verkan Vall with a of respect. Verkan Vall on his and his clothing.
There some about the pistols; it was that each should use his own shoulder-holster weapon. All three were nearly alike—small weapons, than they looked, a ten-grain at ten thousand foot-seconds. On impact, such a would almost disintegrate; a man in the with one would be killed instantly, his and his stopped by pressure. Each of the pistols twenty in the magazine.
Verkan Vall and Sirzob of Abo took their places, their pistols at their sides, each other across a twenty meters.
"Are you ready, gentlemen?" Klarnood asked. "You will not your pistols until the to fire; you may fire at will after it. Ready. Fire!"
Illustration
Both pistols up to level. Verkan Vall Sirzob's in his and squeezed; the pistol in his hand, and he saw a of jump from the of Sirzob's. Both together, and with the report came the whip-cracking of Sirzob's Verkan Vall's head. Then Sirzob's its unpleasantly, and he forward. Verkan Vall on his safety and motionless, while the advanced, took Sirzob's by the heels, and it over Marnark's.
"All right; Honorable Yirzol, you're next," Verkan Vall called out.
"The Lord Virzal has one shot," one of the objected, "and Honorable Yirzol has a full magazine. The Lord Virzal should put in another magazine."
"I him the advantage; let's on with it," Verkan Vall said.
Yirzol of Narva to the point. He was not of death—none of the Akor-Neb people were; their language no word to the of total and final extinction—and by was almost painless. But he was to that he had a of himself by into this affair, he had work in his present which he wanted to finish, and his political party would loss, of his services and of prestige.
"Are you ready, gentlemen?" Klarnood ritualistically. "You will not your pistols until the to fire; you may fire at will after it. Ready, Fire!"
Verkan Vall Yirzol of Narva through the the had his pistol raised. Yirzol on the of blood Sirzob had made, and the came and his over with the others. It Verkan Vail of some of assembly-line operation. He replaced the two in his magazine with fresh ones and the pistol into its holster. The two Assassins had been so were to count up their and pay off the winners.
Klarnood, the President-General of the Society of Assassins, came over, and with Verkan Vall.
"Lord Virzal, I've a duels, but nothing like that," he said. "You should have been an Assassin!"
That was a compliment. Verkan Vall thanked him modestly.
"I'd like to talk to you privately," the Assassin-President continued. "I think it'll be your while if we have a together."
Verkan Vall nodded. "My is on the above; will that be all right?" He waited until the had settling their bets, then to his own pair of Assassins.
As they into the Martian Room again, the manager was waiting; he looked as though he were about to that Verkan Vall his suite. However, when he saw the arm of the President-General of the Society of Assassins over his guest's shoulder, he came and smiling.
"Larnorm, I want you to put five of your best Assassins to the to the Lord Virzal's suite," Klarnood told him. "I'll send five more from Assassins' Hall to replace them at their ordinary duties. And I'll you with your for the Lord Virzal's safety in this hotel. Understand?"
"Oh, yes, Honorable Assassin-President; you may trust me. The Lord Virzal will be perfectly safe."
In Verkan Vall's suite, above, Klarnood sat and got out his pipe, it with tobacco mixed with zerfa. To his surprise, he saw his light a plain tobacco cigarette.
"Don't you use zerfa?" he asked.
"Very little," Verkan Vall replied. "I it. If you'd see the who around our sheds, on Venus, rejected and themselves into a stupor, you'd be in using it, too."
Klarnood nodded. "You know, most men would want a pipe of fifty percent, or a cigarette, after what you've been through," he said.
"I'd need something like that, to my conscience, if I had one to deaden," Verkan Vall said. "As it is, I like a of babes. That fool, Marnark, his knife like a cow-butcher. The couldn't a pistol at all. I the old fellow, Sirzob, was a shot, but him wasn't any great of arms, either."
Klarnood looked at him for a moment. "You know," he said, at length, "I you actually that. Well, until he met you, Marnark of Bashad was as the best knife-fighter in Darsh. Sirzob had ten victories to his credit, and Yirzol four." He slowly on his pipe. "I like you, Lord Virzal; a great Assassin was when you to as a Venusian land-owner. I'd to see you without proper warning. I take it you're of the of Terran politics?"
"To a large extent, yes."
"Well, do you know who those three men were?" When Verkan Vall his head, Klarnood continued: "Marnark was the son and right-hand of old Mirzark of Bashad, the Statisticalist Party leader. Sirzob of Abo was their director. And Yirzol of Narva was their leading socio-economic theorist, and their candidate for Executive Chairman. In six minutes, with one knife and two shots, you did the Statisticalist Party an second only to that done them by the lady in name you were fighting. In two weeks, there will be a planet-wide election. As it stands, the Statisticalists have a majority of the seats in Parliament and on the Executive Council. As a result of your work and the Lady Dallona's, they'll that majority, and more, when the votes are tallied."
"Is that another why you like me?" Verkan Vall asked.
"Unofficially, yes. As President-General of the Society of Assassins, I must be nonpolitical. The Society is so; if we let ourselves involved, as an organization, in politics, we the System Government of five years, and we'd be out of in fifty years by the very we to control," Klarnood said. "But personally, I would like to see the Statisticalist Party destroyed. If they succeed in their program of socialization, the Society would be finished. A is, in its final development, an absolute, total, state; no total can extra-legal and para-governmental organizations. So we have the policy of a little aid, here and there, to people who are to the Statisticalists. The Lady Dallona of Hadron, and Dr. Harnosh of Hosh, are such persons. You appear to be another. That's why I ordered that fellow, Larnorm, to make sure you were safe in his hotel."
"Where is the Lady Dallona?" Verkan Vall asked. "From your use of the present tense, I assume you her to be still carnate."
Klarnood looked at Verkan Vall keenly. "That's a question, Lord Virzal," he said. "I wish I a little more about you. When you and your Assassins started about the Lady Dallona, I to check up on you. I out that you had come to Darsh from Ghamma on a ship of the family of Zorda, by Brarnend of Zorda himself. And that's all I out. You to be a Venusian planter, and you might be. Any Terran who can as you can would have come to my notice long ago. But you have no more history than if you'd out of another dimension."
That was close to the truth. In fact, it was the truth. Verkan Vall laughed.
"Well, confidentially," he said, "I'm from the Arcturus System. I the Lady Dallona here from our home planet, and when I have her from among you Solarians, I shall, according to our customs, her hand in marriage. As she is the of the Emperor of Arcturus, that'll be a good thing for me."
Klarnood chuckled. "You know, you'd only have to tell me that about three or four times and I'd start it," he said. "And Dr. Harnosh of Hosh would it the time; he's been talking to himself since the Lady Dallona started her work here. Lord Virzal, I'm going to take a on you. The Lady Dallona is still carnate, or was four days ago, and the same for Dirzed. They into after the of Garnon of Roxor, to the of the Statisticalists. Two days after they disappeared, Dirzed called Assassins' Hall and reported this, but told us nothing more. I suppose, in about three or four days, I re-establish with him. We want the public to think that the Statisticalists away with the Lady Dallona, at least until the election's over."
Verkan Vall nodded. "I was sure that was the situation," he said. "It may be that they will in touch with me; if they don't, I'll need your help in them."
"Why do you think the Lady Dallona will try to you?"
"She needs all the help she can get. She she can from me. Why do you think I my search for her, and my existence, to those people over a of and political propaganda?" Verkan Vall to the and it on. "We'll see if I'm results, yet."
The plate lighted, and a man in a gold-laced green was speaking out of it:
"... where he is by Assassins. However, in an with of this service, the Assassin Hirzif, one of the two who the men the Lord Virzal fought, said that in his opinion all of the three were so as to have had no whatever, and that he had already an offer of ten thousand System Monetary Units to the Lord Virzal for the Statisticalist Party. 'When I want to discarnate,' Hirzif the Assassin said, 'I'll in my friends and do it properly; until I do, I wouldn't go up against the Lord Virzal of Verkan for ten S.M.U.'"
Verkan Vall off the visiplate. "See what I mean?" he asked. "I those politicians just for the advertising. If Dallona and Dirzed are near a visiplate, they'll know how to me."
"Hirzif shouldn't have talked about that retainer," Klarnood frowned. "That isn't good Assassin ethics. Why, yes, Lord Virzal; that was planned. It ought to results. But I wish you'd the Lady Dallona out of Darsh, and off Terra, as soon as you can. We've by this, so far, but I shouldn't like to see go much further. A out of this situation, and I don't want that. Call on me for help; I'll give you a word to use at Assassins' Hall."
