from his chair and fell to the floor in
a clatter of armor. Two of the priests slumped forward on the table.
The others merely sank back in their chairs, dropping their goblets.

"Give each one of them another dose, to make sure," Verkan Vall
directed a couple of his own men. "Now, Tammand; any other way into
the main temple beside that door?"

"Up those steps," Tammand Drav pointed. "There's a gallery along the
side; we can cover the whole room from there."

"Take your men and go up there. I'll take a few through the door.
There'll be about twenty archers out there, and we don't want any of
them loosing any arrows before we can knock them out. Three minutes be
time enough?"

"Easily. Make it two," Tammand Drav said.

* * * * *

He took his priests up the stairway and vanished into the gallery of
the temple. Verkan Vall waited until one minute had passed and then,
followed by Brannad Klav and a couple of Paratime Policemen, he went
under the plinth and peered out into the temple. Five or six archers,
in steel caps and sleeveless leather jackets sewn with steel rings,
were gathered around the altar, cooking something in a pot on the
fire. Most of the others, like veteran soldiers, were sprawled on the
floor, trying to catch a short nap, except half a dozen, who crouched
in a circle, playing some game with dice--another almost universal
military practice.

The two minutes were up. He aimed his paralyzer at the men around the
altar and squeezed the button, swinging it from one to another and
knocking them down with a bludgeon of inaudible sound. At the same
time, Tammand Drav and his detail were stunning the gamblers. Stepping
forward and to one side, Verkan Vall, Brannad Klav and the others took
care of the sleepers on the floor. In less than thirty seconds, every
Chuldun in the temple was incapacitated.

"All right, make sure none of them come out of it prematurely," Verkan
Vall directed. "Get their weapons, and be sure nobody has a knife or
anything hidden on him. Who has the syringe and the sleep-drug
ampoules?"

Somebody had, it developed, who was still on the First Level, to come
up with the second conveyer load. Verkan Vall swore. Something like
this always happened, on any operation involving more than half a
dozen men.

"Well, some of you stay here: patrol around, and use your paralyzers
on anybody who even twitches a muscle." Ultrasonics were nice,
effective, humane po