ecause then there would be nothing left. To destroy something
as abstract as a pattern, we need a state in which no pattern is
possible. A state of chaos."

The third disrupter was thrown into circuit. The graph looked as if a
drunken caterpillar had been sketching on it.

"Those disrupters are Harrison's idea," Cercy said. "I told him I
wanted an electrical current with absolutely no coherent pattern. The
disrupters are an extension of radio jamming. The first alters the
electrical pattern. That's its purpose: to produce a state of
patternlessness. The second tries to destroy the pattern left by the
first; the third tries to destroy the pattern made by the first two.
They're fed back then, and any remaining pattern is systematically
destroyed in circuit ... I hope."

"This is supposed to produce a state of chaos?" Malley asked, looking
into the screen.

For a while there was only the whining of the machines and the crazy
doodling of the graph. Then, in the middle of the Ambassador's room, a
spot appeared. It wavered, shrunk, expanded--

What happened was indescribable. All they knew was that everything
within the spot had disappeared.

"Switch it off" Cercy shouted. Harrison cut the switch.

The spot continued to grow.

"How is it we're able to look at it?" Malley asked, staring at the
screen.

"The shield of Perseus, remember?" Cercy said. "Using it as a mirror,
he could look at Medusa."

"It's still growing!" Malley shouted.

"There was a calculated risk in all this," Cercy said. "There's always
the possibility that the chaos may go on, unchecked. If that happens,
it won't matter much what--"

The spot stopped growing. Its edges wavered and rippled, and then it
started to shrink.

"The organizing principle," Cercy said, and collapsed into a chair.

"Any sign of the Ambassador?" he asked, in a few minutes.

The spot was still wavering. Then it was gone. Instantly there was an
explosion. The steel walls buckled inward, but held. The screen went
dead.

"The spot removed all the air from the room," Cercy explained, "as
well as the furniture and the Ambassador."

"He couldn't take it," Malley said. "No pattern can cohere, in a state
of patternlessness. He's gone to join Alfern."

Malley started to giggle. Cercy felt like joining him, but pulled
himself together.

"Take it easy," he said. "We're not through yet."

"Sure we are! The Ambassador--"

"Is out of the way. But there's still an alien f