ies, clutching a sheaf of papers in her right hand as though
someone might at any instant snatch it from her before she could turn it
over to Malloy.

She laid them carefully on the desk. "If anything else comes in, I'll
let you know immediately, sir," she said. "Will there be anything else?"

Malloy let her stand there while he picked up the communique. She wanted
to know what his reaction was going to be; it didn't matter because no
one would ever find out from her what he had done unless she was ordered
to tell someone.

He read the first paragraph, and his eyes widened involuntarily.

"Armistice," he said in a low whisper. "There's a chance that the war
may be over."

"Yes, sir," said Miss Drayson in a hushed voice.

Malloy read the whole thing through, fighting to keep his emotions in
check. Miss Drayson stood there calmly, her face a mask; her emotions
were a secret.

Finally, Malloy looked up. "I'll let you know as soon as I reach a
decision, Miss Drayson. I think I hardly need say that no news of this
is to leave this office."

"Of course not, sir."

Malloy watched her go out the door without actually seeing her. The war
was over--at least for a while. He looked down at the papers again.

The Karna, slowly being beaten back on every front, were suing for
peace. They wanted an armistice conference--immediately.

Earth was willing. Interstellar war is too costly to allow it to
continue any longer than necessary, and this one had been going on for
more than thirteen years now. Peace was necessary. But not peace at any
price.

The trouble was that the Karna had a reputation for losing wars and
winning at the peace table. They were clever, persuasive talkers. They
could twist a disadvantage to an advantage, and make their own strengths
look like weaknesses. If they won the armistice, they'd be able to
retrench and rearm, and the war would break out again within a few
years.

Now--at this point in time--they could be beaten. They could be forced
to allow supervision of the production potential, forced to disarm,
rendered impotent. But if the armistice went to their own advantage ...

Already, they had taken the offensive in the matter of the peace talks.
They had sent a full delegation to Saarkkad V, the next planet out from
the Saarkkad sun, a chilly world inhabited only by low-intelligence
animals. The Karna considered this to be fully neutral territory, and
Earth couldn't argue the point very well