capital.
They just landed, pretending friendship, which I can't see why they
needed to pretend, and then began looting and massacring. There
wasn't anything of real value there; all they took was what the men
could carry themselves or stuff into their landing craft, and they
did that because they have what amounts to a religious taboo
against landing anywhere and leaving without stealing something.
The real loot was at these two other towns; a steel mill and big
stocks of steel at one, and all that skunk-apple oil at the other.
So what did they do? They dropped a five-megaton bomb on each one,
and blew both of them to Em-See-Square. That was a terror-raid pure
and simple, but as Boake inquires, just who were they terrorizing?
If there were big cities somewhere else on the planet, it would
figure. But there aren't. They blew out the two biggest cities,
and all the loot in them."

[Illustration]

"Then they wanted to terrorize somebody off the planet."

"But nobody'd hear about it off-planet," somebody protested.

"The Mardukans would; they trade with Tetragrammaton," the
acknowledged bastard of somebody named Morvill said. "They have
a couple of ships a year there."

"That's right," Trask agreed. "Marduk."

"You mean, you think Dunnan's trying to terrorize _Marduk_?" Valkanhayn
demanded. "Great Satan, even he isn't crazy enough for that!"

Baron Rathmore started to say something about what Andray Dunnan
was crazy enough to do, and what his uncle was crazy enough to do.
It was just one of the cracks he had been making since he'd come
to Tanith and didn't have to look over his shoulder while he was
making them.

"I think he is, too," Trask said. "I think that is exactly what he
is doing. Don't ask me why; as Otto is fond of remarking, he's crazy
and we aren't, and that gives him an advantage. But what have we
gotten, since those Gilgameshers told us about his picking up
Burrik's ship and the _Honest Horris_? Until today, we've heard
nothing from any other Space Viking. What we have gotten was stories
from Gilgameshers about raids on planets where they trade, and every
one of them is also a planet where Marduk ships trade. And in every
case, there has been little or nothing reported about valuable loot
taken. The stories are all about wanton and murderous bombings. I
think Andray Dunnan is making war on Marduk."

"Then he's crazier than his grandfather and his uncle both!"
Rathmore cried.

"You mean, he's ma