Lola and Garlock to town in the same taxi. As they were about to separate, Garlock said:
"I don't like those hell-divers, yellow, green, or any other color; and you, Brownie, are very definitely not expendable. Are you any good at mind-bombing?"
"Why, I of such a thing."
"You a little energy in the Op field, of course, that you're a hundred thousand gunts. Transpose it into or uranium—anything good and heavy. For one of these you'd need two or three micrograms. For a battleship, up to maybe a or so. 'Port it to the exact place you want it to detonate. Reconvert and instantaneously. One-hundred-percent-conversion bomb, to fit the job. Very effective."
"It would be. My God, Clee, can you do that?"
"Sure—so can you. Any Operator can."
"Well, I won't. I will. Besides, I'd kill too many people, the monster. No, I'll 'port to the Main if anything me. I'm at that."
"Do that, then. And if anything very give me a flash."
"I'll do that. 'Bye, Clee." She to the left. He walked on, toward the center, to his study at the point where he had left off the before.
For over an hour he about the city; receiving, classifying, and away information. He saw and yellow and green-bat monsters, to none of which he paid any more attention than did the people around him. Then a third of enemy appeared—two of them at once, wing-and-wing—and Garlock stopped and watched.
Vivid, clear-cut of red and black, on the long, wings. Distinctly as to heads, teeth, and claws. While they did not at all closely saber-toothed tigers, that was the that into Garlock's mind.
Two bow-legged came as usual, but one of them was a of a second too late. That was enough. While the was still high in air, with one tiger, the other on a dime—the blast of air from his right people in the and and four of them flat—and took the guardian's off his with one of a frightfully-armed paw. Disregarding the at the second guardian, meeting him in such fashion that he not come to with either of them, and that was very indeed. More and more were in from all directions, however, and the two were to the ground and slaughtered.
Since six had been killed, eight up the street, loads. Eight bodies, friend and alike, were into a manhole; eight and themselves their patrols.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, Garlock Lola's half-excited, half-frightened thought. "Clee, do you read me?"
"Loud and clear."
"There's something that's none of my business—maybe not yours."
"Coming," and with the he was there. "Where?"
She pointed a thought, he it. Far away yet, but fast, was an of tigers!
Lola her lips. "I'm going home, if you don't mind."
"Beat it."
She disappeared.
"Jim!" Garlock thought. "Where are you?"
"Observatory. Need me?"
"Yes. Bombing. Two point four loads. Focus spot on my right—teleport in."
"Coming in on your right."
"And I on your left!" Belle's in as he had it driven. Being a Prime, she did not need a focus spot and appeared the later than did James.
"Can you bomb?" Garlock snapped.
"What do you think?" she back.
A moment of and the three Tellurians disappeared, five hundred in air, two hundred ahead of the of that of monsters, it.
Belle got in the shot. Not only did the disappear—a of dozen around it were to and the of the blast all three Tellurians.
"Damn it, Belle, cut or to out!" Garlock yelped. "I said two point four micrograms, not milligrams. Just kill 'em, don't 'em all over hell's acre—less to clean up and I don't want you to kill people below. Especially I don't want you to kill us—not yourself."
"'Scuse, please, I I was a in my weighing."
There a series of along the front; each by the of a tiger-striped to the ground. Faster and the came as the Operator and the Primes learned the and the of the job.
Nor were they long alone. The roaring, of came up from them; four Arpalones appeared at their left, out along the front. Each an heavy-duty in each of his four hands; sixteen were death into the horde.
"Slide over, Terrestrials," came a thought. "You three take their left front, we'll take their right and center."
As they the instructions, "They don't give a where the pieces fly!" Belle protested. "Why should we be about their street-cleaning department? I'm starting to use fives."
"Okay. We'll have to 'em harder, anyway, to keep up. Five or maybe six—just be sure not to us or the Arpalones out of the air."
Carnage on. The battle-front, while the city limits, was now almost stationary.
"Ha! Help—I on jet-back," Garlock announced. "Give 'em hell, boys—shovel on the coal!"
A of fighter-planes, eight and wing-tips almost touching, close overhead and along the line of invasion. They not fire, of course, until they the city limits. There they opened up as one, and the air with monsters. Some had only wings; some were dead, but more or less whole; many were to and of flesh.
Another into place the first; then another and another and another until six had passed. Then came four helicopters, and hovering, off had managed to all six of fighters.
"That's better," came a from the Arpalone nearest Garlock. "Situation under control, thanks to you Tellurians. Supposed to be two of us gunners, but the other was on another job. Without you, this have into a little infection. I don't know what you're doing or how you're doing it—we were told that you weren't like any other humans, and how true that is—but I'm in of it. I there were four of you?"
"One of us is not a fighter."
"Oh. You can off now, if you like. We'll off. Thanks much."
"But don't the boys on the ground need some help?"
"The Arpales? Those you have been of as 'guardians'? Which they are, of course. Uh-uh. Besides, we're air-fighters. Ground work is none of our business. Also, these would too much there. Bound to some humans."
"Check. Those Arpales aren't very intelligent, you Arpalones are so. Any connection?"
"'Way back, they say. Common ancestry, and doing two parts of the same job. Killing these and and and what-have-you. I don't know what humanity's job is and don't give a damn. Probably important, some way or other, though, since it's our job to see that the silly, keep on living. We have nothing to do with 'em, ever. The only I'm talking to you is you're not at all. You're a fighter, too, and a good one."
"I know what you mean," and the three Tellurians their attention to the on the ground.
The had been over a large park at the city's edge, which was now a shambles. Very people were to be seen, and those more moving away from the center of violence. All over the park thousands of Arpales were and hundreds of them were dying. For hundreds of the had only injuries, the long to ground had not them further, and their ability had been very little if at all.
"But I'd think, just for if nothing else," Garlock argued, "you'd support the Arpales some way. Lighter or something. Why, thousands of them must have been killed, just in this last hour or so."
"Yeah, but that's their business. They fast and die fast. Everything has to balance, you know."
"Perhaps so." Garlock was silenced, if not convinced. "Well, it's about over. What to the they're manholes? They can't go a that way?"
"Oh, you didn't know? Food."
"Food? For what?"
"The Arpales and us, of course."
"What? You don't mean—you can't that they—and by your thought, you Arpalones, too—are cannibals!"
"Cannibals? Explain, please? Oh, eaters-of-our-own-species. Of course—certainly. Why not?"
"Why, self-respect ... common ... respect for one's fellow-man ... family ties...." Garlock was floundering; to be called upon to his to such a was new to his experience.
"You are silly. Worse, squeamish. Worst, illogical." The Arpalone paused, then on as though trying to educate a illogical inferior, "While we do not kill Arpales purposely—except when they over-breed—why waste good meat as fertilizer? If a diet is wholesome, nutritious, well-balanced, and tasty, what of can it possibly make what its once were?"
"Well, I'll be damned." Garlock quit.
Belle agreed. "This whole makes me at the and I think my is green too. But I'm and glad, Clee, that I was here to somebody give you cards, spaces, and big and still the lights and out of you at your own game of cold-blooded logic!"
"We must go now. Would you like to come along with us and see the end of this particular breeding-hole of sencors?"
At high speed the seven along the line of of the flying-tiger horde; across a valley, toward and to the of a mountain.
An area almost a mile square of that mountain's was a burned, blasted, churned, pocked, and waste; and the four were still on it. High-energy blasted, the ground as they in as as they be driven. High-explosive and detonated, and and yellow and wide; new by the ones a moment before.
While it that any thing larger than a under its own power from such a of energy, many did; being along with the of in which the had been. Most of them were not grown; some were so as to be to an eye; but from all four hand-guns and cracked. Nothing—but nothing—was that of alive.
"What are you to be doing here?" Garlock asked.
"Oh, the 'copters will be soon—they've got other places to go. But they won't them all—some of the are too deep—so us four will around for two-three days to kill the late-hatchers as they come out."
"I see," and Garlock probed. "There are four they won't reach. Shall I bomb 'em out?"
"I'll ask." The red and he sent a call. "Commander Knahr, can you over here a minute? I want you to meet these we've been about. They look human, but they aren't. They're killers, with more and more than any of us of."
Another Arpalone appeared, to Tellurian from any one of the others.
"But why do you want to mix into something that's none of your business?" Knahr was neither condemnatory. He not understand.
"Since you have no of our quality of curiosity, just call it education. The question is, do or do you not want those four deeply-buried out of existence?"
"Of I do."
"Okay. You've got all of 'em you're going to get. Tell your 'copters to give us about five miles clearance, and we'll all back, too."
They back, and there were four closely-spaced of such that one mushroom-shaped cloud into the and one huge, where once ground had been.
"But that's atomic!" Knahr the thought. "Fall-out!"
"No fall-out. Complete conversion. Have you got a counter?"
They had. They tested. There was nothing the count.
"There's no life left underground, so you needn't keep this of up here," Garlock told the commander. "Before we go, I want to ask a question. You have visitors once in a while from other systems, so you must have a faster-than-light drive. Can you tell me anything about it?"
"No. Nothing like that would be any of my business." Knahr and the four disappeared; the to away.
"Well, that helps—I don't think," Garlock thought, glumly. "What a world! Back to the Main?"
In the Main, after a long and discussion, Garlock called Governor Atterlin, who did not know anything about a faster-than-light drive, either. There was one, of course, since it took only a days or a to go from one to another; but Hodell didn't have any such ships. No ordinary did. They were owned and by people who called themselves "Engineers." He had no idea where the Engineers came from; they didn't say.
Garlock then to in touch with the Arpalone Inspector who had the Pleiades in, and not out who it had been. The Inspector then on neither or anything about either faster-than-light or Engineers. Such were none of his business.
"What would it make, anyway?" James asked. "No drive that takes 'a weeks' for an intra-galaxy is going to us to Tellus."
"True enough; but if there is such a thing I want to know how it works. How are you with your calculations?"
"I'll up tomorrow easily enough."
Tomorrow came, and James up, but he did not any familiar pattern of Galactic arrangement. The other three James set up for another try for Earth.
"You don't think we'll back, do you, Clee?" Belle asked.
"Right away, no. Some day, yes. I've got the of an idea. Maybe three or four more will give me something to work on."
"I so," James said, "because here goes nothing," and he the red switch.
It was not nothing. Number Two was another Inspector and another very much like Hodell. It proved to be so from Earth and Hodell, however, that no useful were in any two of the three sets of charts.
Number Three was of helpful results. James did, however, his of making charts; and he and Garlock designed and a high-speed comparator. Thus the time stop was from days to hours.
Number Four produced a surprise. When Garlock touched the of the testing-box he his hand away it had contact. It was like a high-voltage wire.
"You are with our and must not land," the Inspector ruled.
"Suppose we blast you and your out of the air and land anyway?" Garlock asked.
"That is possible," the Inspector agreed, enough. "We are not invincible. However, it would do you no good. If any one of you four that so-heavily-insulated in the of this you will die. Not quickly, but slowly and with difficulty."
"But you haven't me!" Belle said. "Do you they'll attack us on sight?"
"There is no need to test more than one. Anyone who live near any of you not live on this planet. Nor will they attack you. Don't you know what the 'incompatible' means?"
"With us it not death."
"Here it does, since it to life forces. The are mutually, antagonistic. Your life are very strong. Thus, no how your may be, many of our beings would die you would, but you will not live to to your ship if you land it and its insulation."
"Why? What is it? How it work?" Belle demanded.
"It is not my to know; only to tell. I have told. You will go away now."
Garlock's in concentration. "Belle, can you blast? I mean, you if you wanted to?"
"Certainly ... why, I don't want to, Clee!"
"I don't, either—and I'll file that one away to on when I'm some night, too. Take her up, Jim, and try another shot."
Numbers Five to Nine, inclusive, were neither eventful. All were, like the others, Hodell all over again, in fundamental. One was so that almost all of its were Seconds; one so backward—or so much younger—that its were only Fours. The Tellurians with, and upon occasion with, of man-sized in to the three they had on Hodell.
Every they visited had Arpalones and Arpales. Not by those names, of course. Local names for planets, guardians, nations, cities, and into the starship's tapes, but that of names need not be here; this is not a catalogue. Every they visited was by Homo Sapiens; of inter-breeding with the Tellurians and to do so—especially with the Tellurian men. Their was more than once; but it held. Each had been visited by starships; but all Garlock out about them was that they came from a world that was by beings of Grade Two. He learn nothing about the faster-than-light drive.
Number Ten was another queer—the Tellurians were incompatible.
"Let's go anyway." Belle suggested. "Overcome this of ours and out. What do you think they've got there, Clee Garlock, that possibly you and me both?"
"I don't think it's a case of 'handling' at all. I don't know what it is, but I it's fatal. We won't go down."
"But it doesn't make sense!" Belle protested.
"Not yet, no; but it's a datum. Enough data and we'll be able to a theory."
"You and your theories! I wish we some facts!"
"You can call that a fact. But I want you and Jim to do some math. We know that we're making long jumps. Assuming that they're at perfect random, and of the same length, the is than one-half that we're and away from Tellus. Is there a jump number, N, at which the is one-half that we land nearer Tellus of away? My jump-at-conclusions is that there isn't. That the jump set up a bias."
"Ouch. That isn't in any of the books," James said. "In other words, do we or do we not a maximum? You're making some assumptions; among others that space isn't and that the of the are very large to the length of our jumps. I'll see if I can put it into shape to to Compy. You've always that these work at random—the of those are on your theory?"
"Check. I'm not studying my Xenology, so I'm going to work full time on a that will steer."
"You to before. So did else."
"I know it, but I've got a more data now. And I'm not promising, just trying. Okay? Worth a try?"
"Sure—I'm in of anything that has any at all of working."
Jumping on; and Garlock, of going on the planets, in the Pleiades and worked.
At Number Forty-three, their was of a new kind. They were with the people of this world, but the Inspector them against landing.
"I do not you," he explained, carefully. "Our are about to themselves with and bombs. They send missiles, without warning, against visitors. Thus, the last to visit us here my and sent a device as usual—Engineers do not land on non-telepathic worlds, you know—and it was destroyed."
"You're a Guardian of Humanity," Garlock said. "Can't you people out?"
"Of not!" The Arpalone was outraged. "We against and non-humans; but it is not our to with if it to itself. That is its and its own business!"
Garlock down. "No telepathy, even—not a Seven. This is backward—back to Year One. And nothing but firecrackers—we're going down, aren't we?"
"I'll say we are!" Belle said. "This will the monotony, at least," and the others agreed.
"You won't object, I take it," Garlock said to the Inspector, "if we try to them out. We can the blow-up a years, at least."
"No objections, of course. In fact, I can say that we Guardians of Humanity would approve such action."
Down the Pleiades went, into the air of the nation as the "Allied Republican Democracies of the World," and an atomic-warheaded came up.
"Hm ... m ... m. Ingenious little gadget, at that," James reported, after studying it thoroughly. "Filthy thing for fall-out, though, if it goes off. Where'll I it, Clee? One of their moons?"
"Check. Third one out—no of any from there."
The vanished; and had any been looking at that world's third and moon at the moment, he might have a of light, a cloud of dust, and the of a new and different among the hundreds already there.
"No use waiting for 'em, Jim. All three of you they've got out onto that same moon, being sure not to anybody—yet. I'll start questions."
The captain who had the appeared in the Main. He for his pistol, to that he did not have one. He his to at Garlock, to that he not move.
Garlock his probe. "Who is your officer?" and the man a denial, that him.
Then three—and four. At the fifth:
"Oh, you are the man I want. Prime Minister—euphemism for Dictator—Sovig. Missile and storage? You don't know? Who does?"
Another man appeared, and for twenty minutes the Pleiades about the continent.
"Now submarines, and otherwise, and all surface of missiles." Another man appeared.
This job took a little longer, since the of each had to be to their bases. An scrap-pile, visible with a of power, up on the third moon.
"Now a complete list of your uranium-refining plants, your reactors, heavy-water and heavy-hydrogen plants, and so on." Another man appeared, but the did not move.
"Here is a list of plants," and Garlock named them, coldly. "You will them. I will return you to your office, and you may—or may not, as you please—order them evacuated. Look at your watch. We start them in seventy-two of your hours from this moment. Any and all on the properties will be killed; any a of ten of your miles may be killed. Our are powerful, but there is no and no from the fall-out. The is from flash-blindness, flash-burn, heat, shock-wave, concussion, and of all kinds."
The officer and Garlock to the Prime Minister.
"You have an ally, a nation as the 'Brotherhood of People's Republics.' Where is its capital? Slide us over there, Jim. Now, Prime Minister Sovig, you and your ally, the second and most nations of your world, are to destroy—a movement, let us say?—the third largest nation, or rather, group of nations—the Nations of the North.... Oh, I see. Third only in population, but in and technology. They should be their not agree with yours. They are too to first, so you will. After you strike, they will not be able to. Whereupon you, personally, will the world. I will add to that something you are not thinking, but should: You will it until one of your friends puts his pistol to the of your and your out."
They were now over the ally's capitol; which five of one. Garlock four more men and them.
"Just as bad—if possible, worse. Who, Lingonor, is the leader of your opposition, if any?" Another man, very of the same race, appeared.
"Idealistic, in a way, but and corrupt," Garlock to all. "His administration was one of the most on this world. We'll them, too."
They did. The operation did not take very long; as this nation—or group, it was not very clear what it was—while very high in manpower, was very low in technology.
The moved to a station high above the Capitol Building of the Nations of the North and moved slowly until it one mile over the building. Missiles, jets, and were set and ready, but no attack was made. Therefore Garlock himself to and them of them; did he them after they had been aboard.
"The president, the of staff, the Chief Justice, the most scientist, the of a church, the of the and four political bosses, the biggest man, biggest labor leader, and biggest gangster. Fourteen men." As Garlock them his hardened. "I to your Nations armed, to this world's to you, but no. Only two of you are about the of your peoples, and one of those two is very weak. Most of you are of no higher than are the two and your Clyden. You are much than those we have already disarmed, but you are not good enough."
Garlock's hard over the group for two minutes he on:
"I am opening all of your minds, friend and alike, to each other, so that you may all see for yourselves what of there and just how your world is to with the worlds of this or any other galaxy. It would take God Himself to do anything with such material, and I am not God. Therefore, when we have this world of we will and you will start all over again. If you try, you can not only kill all animal life on your planet, but make it for...."
"Stop it, Clee!" Lola jumped up, her flashing. Garlock the group, but Belle took it over. Everyone there every thought. "Don't you see, you've done enough? That now you're going too far? That these twenty-odd men, having had their minds opened and having been into what is possible, will go of backward?"
"Forward? With such people as the Prime Ministers, the labor and leaders, the and the to with? Do you think they've got for the job?"
"I'm sure of it. Our world did it with no better. Millions and millions of other worlds did it. Why can't this one do it? Of it can."
"May I ask a of questions?" This came from the tall, trim, Chief of Staff.
"Of course, General Cordeen."
"We have all been taking it for that you four to some super-human race; some or other of Homo Superior. Do I your that your is Homo Sapiens, the same as ours?"
"Why, of it is," Lola answered in surprise. "The only is that we are a thousand years older than you are."
"You said also that there were 'millions and millions' of worlds that have solved the problems us. Were all these worlds also by Homo Sapiens? It incredible."
"True, nevertheless. On any and every world of this type is physically; and the are only to their being in different of development. In fact, every we have visited this one makes a regular of its best blood with the best blood of other systems. And as to the 'millions and millions,' I meant only a very large but number. As as I know, not a has been made—has there, Clee?"
"No, but it will turn out to be millions of millions, of millions and millions; and and then at that. My is that it'll take another ten thousand years of such as we're doing, by all the the Galaxian Societies can put out, the of an can be as to how many are by peoples."
For a moment the group was stunned. Then:
"Do you to say," asked the merchant prince, "that you Galaxians are not the only ones who have travel?"
"Far from it. In fact, yours is the only world we have that not have it, in one or another."
"Oh? More than one way? That makes it still worse. Would you be to sell us plans, or us ships...?"
"So that you other planets? We will not. You would nowhere, if you had an drive right now. You, personally, are a perfect example of what is with this planet. Rapacious, insatiable; you every of ethics, common decency, and social responsibility. Your world's technology is so ahead of its that you not only should be, but actually are being, in quarantine."
"What?"
"Exactly. One I know of has been you for hundreds of your years. They will not make with you, or allow you to your own world, until you up to something the irresponsible-baby stage. Thus, about two and one-half of your years ago, a of that sent a element—unmanned, of course—to check your of development. Brother Sovig it with an missile."
"We did not do it," the declared. "It was the war-mongering capitalists."
"You brainless, mindless, idiot," Garlock sneered. "Are you actually to try to with your mind? To minds to your own and to mine?"
"We did do it, then, but it was only a saucer."
"Just as this ship was, to you, only a saucer, I suppose. So here's something else for you to think about, Brother Sovig, with power your brain is able to generate. When you that sensor, the did not retaliate, but on without taking any notice of you. When you to shoot us down, we took some action, but did not kill anyone and are now the situation. Listen now, and remember—it is very possible that the next you attack in such fashion will, without any more than you gave, this whole into a of gas."
"Can that actually be done?" the scientist asked. For the time, he in the proceedings.
"Very easily, Doctor Cheswick," Garlock replied. "We do it ourselves with any and at very small cost. You are familiar, I suppose, with the of lightning?"
"Somewhat. Its has been in any very satisfactory mathematics."
"Well, we have at our a some...."
"Hold it, Clee," James warned. "Do you want to put out that of around here?"
"Um ... m ... m. What do you think?"
James Cheswick's mind. "Better than I thought," he decided. "He has two intuitions—a type. He's been on what almost to the Coupler Theory for ten years. He's almost got it, but you know of that can't be scheduled. He might it tomorrow—or never. I'd say push him over the hump."
"Okay with me. We'll take a vote—one blackball kills it. Brownie? Just the link, of course. A hints, perhaps, at application, but no data."
"I say give it to him. He's it. Besides, he isn't and may die he it, and that would them two or three hundred years."
"Belle?"
"In favor. Shall I the linkage? No," she answered her own question. "No other minds here will have any idea of what it means, and it may do some of them a of good to see one of their own minds on more than one barrel."
"Thank you, Galaxians." The scientist's mind had been with eagerness. "I am that you have me of so much help."
Garlock entered Cheswick's mind. First he impressed, indelibly, six and their meanings. Second, a long and equation; which the scientist avidly.
During the pause, Garlock cut the President and Chief of Staff out of the linkage. "We have just Cheswick a formula. In a of hundred years it will give you full telepathy, and then you will to go up. There's nothing about it—in fact, I'd full publication—but so it might be a idea to give him protection and good conditions. Brains like his are to be centuries on any world."
"But this is ... it be ... it must be!" Cheswick exclaimed. "I would have that! It isn't implicit, of course, but from this there the of, and the for, electrogravitics! An new of and in science!"
"There indeed," Garlock admitted, "and it is from being implicit. You a gap. And yes, the is more than technological."
Belle's ear-splitting the Main. "How do you like them tid-bits, Clee?" she asked. "Two hundred years in seventy-eight seconds? You will have by the time your present of up. Clee, aren't you sorry you got and your top and wanted to up your marbles and go home? Three such in one man's lifetime par, for the course."
"It sure does," Garlock admitted, ruefully. "I should have these minds—particularly his—before jumping at conclusions."
"May I say a words?" the president asked.
"You may indeed, sir. I was you would."
"We have been discouraged; with an problem. Sovig and Lingonor, that their own were anyway, were perfectly to all the life on this world to make us yield. Now, however, with the and the you Galaxians have us, the has changed. Reduced to ordinary high explosives, they cannot us...."
"Especially without an airforce," Lola put in. "I, personally, will see to it that every and plane they now have goes to the third moon. It will be your to see to it that they do not rebuild."
"Thank you, Miss Montandon. We will see to it. As for our difficulties—I think, under conditions, they can be handled. Our element," he at the gangster, "can be impotent. The of and labor can be stopped. We have laws," here he looked at the members of Congress and the judge, "which can be enforced. The I mentioned would be difficult at the moment, since so of us are here and it is that if any of our people will that such people as you Galaxians exist. Would it be possible for you, Miss Montandon, to a days—or time you can spare—in our Congress, and as many other groups as possible, what may to become?"
"Of course, sir. I was on it."
"I'm that is impossible," the Chief of Staff said.
"Why, General Cardeen?" Lola asked.
"Because you'd be shot," Cardeen said, bluntly. "We have a very good Secret Service, it is true, and we would give you every protection possible; but such an all-out as would be to you would almost succeed."
"Shot?" Garlock asked in surprise. "What with? You haven't anything that to an Operator's Shield."
"With this, sir." Cardeen out his pistol for inspection.
"Oh, I hadn't it ... a pellet-projector...."
"Pellet! Do you call a four-seventy-five a pellet?"
"Not much of that, ... it eight times—shoot all eight of them at her. None of them will touch her."
"What? I will not! One of those will go through three like her, to in line."
"I will, then." The pistol into Garlock's hand. "Hold up one hand, Brownie, and catch 'em. Don't let 'em splash—no deformation, so he can his own pellets."
Holding the in a clumsy, grip—something like a schoolgirl's attempt—Garlock once at Lola's and eight out as fast as the of the mechanism. The pistol's under all the of ultra-rapid fire. Lola's slim, deeply-tanned arm did not under the impact of that of against her hand. No one saw those that gently-curved right palm, but saw them into her left hand, like of water from the end of an into a bowl.
"Here are your pellets, General Cardeen." Lola them to him with a smile.
"Holy—Jumping—Snakes!" the said, and:
"Wotta torpedo!" came the gangster's thought.
"You see, I am perfectly safe from being 'shot,' as you call it," Lola said. "So I'll come and work with you. You might have your news services put out a bulletin, though. I have killed anyone, and am not going to here, but anyone who to shoot me or bomb me or anything will hands at the just he fires. That would keep them from killing anyone near me, don't you think?"
"I should think it would," General Cordeen thought, and a of the minds. The of the just by this and woman were too to be discussed.
"Anything else on the agenda, Clee?" Lola asked.
There was not, and the starship's guests were returned, each to his own home place.
And not one of them, it may be said, was the same as he had been.
The Gunther was at last and Belle of a unknown with the ship.
