ll on their faces. The fat man whirled.

"Devil!" he shrieked. "A killer is abroad!" He charged, mouth open.
Brett ducked aside, tripped the fat man. He fell heavily, slamming his
face against the pavement. The golems surged forward. Brett and Dhuva
slammed punches to the sternum, took clumsy blows on the shoulder, back,
chest. Golems fell. Brett ducked a wild swing, toppled his attacker,
turned to see Dhuva deal with the last of the dummies. The fat man sat
in the street, dabbing at his bleeding nose, the panama still in place.

"Get up," Brett commanded. "There's no time left."

"You've killed them. Killed them all ..." The fat man got to his feet,
then turned suddenly and plunged for the door from which a cloud of
smoke poured. Brett hauled him back. He and Dhuva started off, dragging
the struggling man between them. They had gone a block when their
prisoner, with a sudden frantic jerk, freed himself, set off at a run
for the fire.

"Let him go!" Dhuva cried. "It's too late to go back!"

The fat man leaped fallen golems, wrestled with the door, disappeared
into the smoke. Brett and Dhuva sprinted for the corner. As they
rounded it a tremendous blast shook the street. The pavement before them
quivered, opened in a wide crack. A ten-foot section dropped from view.
They skirted the gaping hole, dashed for safety as the facades along the
street cracked, fell in clouds of dust. The street trembled under a
second explosion. Cracks opened, dust rising in puffs from the long
wavering lines. Masonry collapsed around them. They put their heads down
and ran.

* * * * *

Winded, Brett and Dhuva walked through the empty streets of the city.
Behind them, smoke blackened the sky. Embers floated down around them.
The odor of burning Gel was carried on the wind. The late sun shone on
the blank pavement. A lone golem in a tasseled fez, left over from the
morning's parade, leaned stiffly against a lamp post, eyes blank. Empty
cars sat in driveways. TV antennae stood forlornly against the sunset.

"That place looks lived-in," said Brett, indicating an open apartment
window with a curtain billowing above a potted geranium. "I'll take a
look."

He came back shaking his head. "They were all in the TV room. They
looked so natural at first; I mean, they didn't look up or anything when
I walked in. I turned the set off. The electricity is still working
anyway. Wonder how long it will last?"

They tur