n seen in the
Belt before, had slipped in five ships patterned precisely after his,
but larger, more magnificent and expensive, and set them running on
the same course as his but one day ahead. His customers told him. They
were apologetic but they had bought at the ship which came earliest,
enticed by the glitter and the bargain prices.

It was a killing blow, and was obviously meant to be so. The UT
managers were wise in the ways of power, and with limitless money
could bankrupt him.

That day Bryce saw that he could not fight UT from outside, and he saw
a dream of empire greater than Alexander ever dreamed of being ripped
from his hands. When a tactful and conciliating offer came from UT for
a merger and an exchange of stock at double its value, he saw it was
an indirect bribe for his silent submission without complaints to
Spaceways or to the Anti-Cartel Commission of the FN, and he saw that
the only way to compete with the gigantic corporation was to destroy
it from within.

He held out for a seat on the Board of Directors. They gave it to him.

And in three years had done an efficient job of corrupting and
undermining UT to the point where it was ready to fall. UT had a week
more to live in respected public service before an outraged public
tore it apart.

Bryce had left Orillo in the Belt to form a small delivery company
servicing thinly settled outlying points where the profits were too
small to disturb UT. It would be this company that would take over and
buy out the UT equipment when Spaceways chopped up the monster
corporation, and it was planned that Orillo offer Bryce full
partnership when this event took place.

But perhaps Orillo objected to sharing his reign with a partner. And
perhaps Orillo had always objected to the fact that Bryce was the only
one who knew Orillo was a fugitive from justice. Bryce had never quite
been able to tell what went on behind the handsome blond face and
impassive blue eyes of his assistant.

Bryce had taken him in hand and given him a job after Orillo fled from
a murder charge in South Africa. And Bryce had arranged the operations
that gave Orillo a new face, new fingerprints and an unworried future.
Only Bryce could now give the word to the police which could bring the
examination that would show Orillo's retina tallied with that of a
wanted man.

But if murder had always lain behind those impassive pale blue eyes,
why had there been no attempts before? The answer