"How are they thwarting--"

Kovandaswamy was sweating despite the air-conditioning, despite his
almost-naked state. "You have the right to turn this mission down, of
course. The League told me that."

"I'm here," Mayhem said simply.

"Very well, sir. Sooner or later, every outworlder who ventures out
among the Ophiuchans kills himself."

"I guess I didn't hear you. Did you say kills himself?"

"Suicide, Mayhem. Exactly."

"But how can you blame--"

"Like their ancestors from the Earthian sub-continent of India, Mayhem,
the Ophiuchans are mystics. The trance, the holy man who sits in
contemplation of his navel, the World Spirit--these are the things of
their culture most important to them. Mayhem, did you ever see a hundred
holy men of India working together?"

"Usually they don't work together."

"Precisely, sir. Precisely. Here on Ophiuchus, they do. And not merely a
hundred. All of them. Virtually all of them. Working together, their
minds in trance, unified, seeking their World Spirit, they can do
amazing things."

"Like mentally forcing the outworlders to kill themselves?"

"Yes, sir. Legally, they are innocent. Morally, they do not recognize
the outworlders as equals of themselves. The League wants to know what
they are trying to hide. It could be a threat to peace and--existence."

"You have a body for me?" Johnny would be ready with that provided.

* * * * *

If anyone but Johnny Mayhem had asked that question, Kovandaswamy would
not have known what he was talking about, or would have thought him
insane, or both. But Johnny Mayhem was, of course, the legandary Man
Without a Body. How many corporeal shells had he inhabited in the past
half dozen years? He shrugged, not remembering. He couldn't remain in
one body more than a month: it would mean the final death of his _elan_,
his bodiless sentience. So far he had avoided that death.

The Galactic League would help him if it could. Every world which had a
human population and a Galactic League post, however small, must have a
body in cold storage, waiting for Johnny Mayhem if his services were
required. But no one knew exactly under what circumstances the Galactic
League Council, operating from the hub of the Galaxy, might summon
Mayhem. And only a very few people, including those at the Hub and the
Galactic League Firstmen on civilized worlds and Observers on primitive
worlds, knew the precise mechanism of Mayhem's c