in his earphones. "I mean ... didn't you realize that the boulder was
too massive to escape completely after it had missed me? You could've
calculated its orbit ... you just threw it into a, uh, six-minute
orbit around the planetoid. It _had_ to come back to perigee ... right
where you were standing when you threw it, you know."

Odal said nothing, but strained every cell in his pain-wracked body to
get free of the boulder. Hector reached over his shoulder and began
fumbling with the valves that were pressed against the rocks.

"Sorry to do this ... but I'm not, uh, killing you, at least ... just
defeating you. Let's see ... one of these is the oxygen valve, and the
other, I think, is the emergency rocket pack ... now, which is which?"
Odal felt the Watchman's hands searching for the proper valve. "I
should've dreamed up suits without the rocket pack ... confuses things ...
there, that's it."

Hector's hand tightened on a valve and turned it sharply. The rocket
roared to life and Odal was hurtled free of the boulder, shot
uncontrolled completely off the planetoid. Hector was bowled over by
the blast and rolled halfway around the tiny chink of rock and metal.

Odal tried to reach around to throttle down the rocket, but the pain
in his body was too great. He was slipping into unconsciousness. He
fought against it. He knew he must return to the planetoid and somehow
kill the opponent. But gradually the pain overpowered him. His eyes
were closing, closing--

And, quite abruptly, he found himself sitting in the booth of the
dueling machine. It took a moment for him to realize that he was back
in the real world. Then his thoughts cleared. He had failed to kill
Hector.

And at the door of the booth stood Kor, his face a grim mask of anger.

XVI

The office was that of the new prime minister of the Acquataine
Cluster. It had been loaned to Leoh for his conversation with Sir
Harold Spencer. For the moment, it seemed like a great double room:
half of it was dark, warm woods, rich draperies, floor-to-ceiling
bookcases. The other half, from the tri-di screen onward, was the
austere, metallic utility of a starship compartment.

Spencer was saying, "So this hired assassin, after killing four men
and nearly wrecking a government, has returned to his native worlds."

Leoh nodded. "He returned under guard. I suppose he is in disgrace, or
perhaps even under arrest."

"Servants of a dictator never know when they will be th