r three times. It whined
instead of rasping, because of its low-power setting. The Minister for
Health collapsed. Before he touched ground the nearer of the two
uniformed men seemed to stumble with his blaster halfway drawn. The
third man toppled.

"Murgatroyd!" said Calhoun sharply.

"_Chee!_" shrilled Murgatroyd. He leaped into the ground car beside
Calhoun.

* * * * *

The motor squealed because of the violence with which Calhoun applied
the power. It went shrilly away with three limp figures left behind
upon the ground. But there wouldn't be instant investigation. The
atmosphere in Government Center was not exactly normal. People looked
apprehensively at them. But Calhoun was out of sight before the first
of them stirred.

"It's the devil," said Calhoun as he swung to the right at a roadway
curve, "to have scruples! If I'd killed Lett in cold blood, I'd have
been the only hope these people could have! Maybe they'd have let me
help them!"

He made another turn. There were buildings here and there, and he was
hardly out of sight of where he'd dropped three men. But it was
astonishing that action had been taken so quickly after Lett regained
consciousness. Calhoun had certainly left him not more than a quarter
of an hour before. The low-power blaster must have kept him stunned
for minutes. But immediately he'd recovered he'd issued orders for the
capture or the killing of a man with a small animal with him, a
_tormal_. And the order would have been carried out if Calhoun hadn't
happen to have his own blaster actually in his hand.

But the appalling thing was the over-all situation as now revealed.
The people of Government Center were turning para and Dr. Lett had all
the authority of the government behind him. He was the government for
the duration of the emergency. But he'd stay the government because
all the men in high office were paras who could conceal their
condition only so long as Dr. Lett permitted it. Calhoun could picture
the social organization to be expected. There'd be the tyrant; the
absolute monarch at its head. Absolutely submissive citizens would
receive their dosage of vaccine to keep them "normals" so long as it
pleased their masters. Anyone who defied him or even tried to flee
would become something both mad and repulsive, because subject to
monstrous and irresistible appetite. And the tyrant could prevent even
their satisfaction! So the citizens of Tallien