he booth
of the dueling machine.

XV

The door opened and Leoh squeezed into the booth.

"You're all right?"

Hector blinked and refocused his eyes on reality. "Think so--"

"Everything went well? The Watchmen got through to you?"

"Good thing they did. I was nearly killed anyway."

"But you survived."

"So far."

Across the room, Odal stood massaging his forehead while Kor demanded:
"How could they possibly have discovered the secret? Where was the
leak?"

"That is not important now," Odal said quietly. "The primary fact is
that they have not only discovered our secret, but they have found a
way of duplicating it."

"The sanctimonious hypocrites," Kor snarled, "accusing us of cheating,
and then they do the same thing."

"Regardless of the moral values of our mutual behavior," Odal said
dryly, "it is evident that there is no longer any use in calling on
telepathically-guided assistants, I shall face the Watchman alone
during the second half of the duel."

"Can you trust them to do the same?"

"Yes. They easily defeated my aides a few minutes ago, then stood
aside and allowed the two of us to fight by ourselves."

"And you failed to defeat him?"

Odal frowned, "I was wounded by a fluke. He is a very ... unusual
opponent. I cannot decide whether he is actually as clumsy as he
appears to be, or whether he is shamming and trying to make me
overconfident. Either way, it is impossible to predict his behavior.
Perhaps he is also telepathic."

Kor's gray eyes became flat and emotionless. "You know, of course, how
the Chancellor will react if you fail to kill this Watchman. Not
merely defeat him. He must be killed. The aura of invincibility must
be maintained."

"I will do my best," Odal said.

"He must be killed."

The chime that marked the end of the rest period sounded. Odal and
Hector returned to the their booths. Now it was Hector's choice of
environment and weapons.

Odal found himself enveloped in darkness. Only gradually did his eyes
adjust. He saw that he was in a spacesuit. For several minutes he
stood motionless, peering into the darkness, every sense alert, every
muscle coiled for immediate action.

[Illustration]

Dimly he could see the outlines of jagged rock against a background of
innumerable stars. Experimentally, he lifted one foot. It stuck
tackily, to the surface. _Magnetized boots_, Odal thought. _This must
be a planetoid._

As his eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, he