the Amazon forest, the agonized
Mars began to talk.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Zeus, Venus, Diana and Forrester sat in the Court of the Gods, listening
to a large, blue-skinned individual with bright red eyes and two long
white fangs coming from a lipless mouth. The eyes were like a cat's,
with slitted pupils, and the general expression on the individual's face
was one of feral hatred and bestial madness. However, as he had
explained, he was not responsible for the arrangement of his features.
He was, he kept saying, only interested in the general welfare. What was
more, it was his business to be interested. He was, as a matter of fact,
a cop: Bor Mellistos, of the Interstellar Police.

"My rank," he had told them mildly, "is about the equivalent of your
Detective Inspector."

"Technically," he was saying now, "you are all four guilty of being
accessories--as I understand your local law phrases it. However--"

He smiled. It made him look unbelievably horrible. Forrester tried not
to pay any attention to it.

"However," he went on, "in view of the fact that none of you could
possibly have known that you were, in fact, accessories--that is, that
you were dealing with a criminal group, if you understand me--plus the
fact that Mr. Forrester, as soon as he did discover the facts, called us
at once through the power machine--I feel that we can overlook your part
in the matter."

Venus frowned. "Wait a minute. I'm not sure I understand this at all.
What crime are the Gods supposed to have committed?"

"Not crime, miss," Bor Mellistos said. His eyes twinkled. Forrester
gulped and turned away. "Crimes. Misuse of a neural power machine, for
one--and the domination and enslavement of a less advanced intelligent
culture for another. Both those are very serious crimes."

"Less advanced culture?" Forrester said. "You mean us?"

"I'm afraid so, sir," Bor Mellistos said. "You see, all the members of
my culture are attuned to the power nodes of one neural machine or
another, but this power is not meant to be misused. We have been
searching for this group for a long time now."

"And you first got wind of them on Earth about three thousand years
ago?"

"A little more than that, actually," Bor Mellistos said, "if you don't
mind the correction."

"Not at all," Forrester said, looking at the fangs of the Detective
Inspector.

"We were alerted after the radiations had been coming in for some time.
The search for this group wa