t attitude, were more anxious than ever to see
the alliance progress to the working stage. As an indication of its
potential usefulness, the monster had provided them with a variety of
working plasmoid robots, built to their own specifications.

"What kind of specifications?" Trigger inquired.

Lyad hadn't learned in detail, but some of the robots appeared to have
demonstrated rather alarming possibilities. Those possibilities,
however, were precisely what intrigued the hierarchy most.

Mantelish smacked his lips thoughtfully and shook his head. "Not good!"
he said. "Not at all good! I'm beginning to think--" He paused a
moment. "Go on, Lyad."

The hierarchy was now giving renewed consideration to a curious request
the plasmoid had made almost as soon as Balmordan became capable of
understanding it. The request had been to find and destroy plasmoid
113-A.

The Ermetyne's amber eyes switched to Trigger. "Shall I?" she asked.

Trigger nodded.

And a specific human being. The Devagas already had established that
this human being must be Trigger Argee.

"_What?_" Mantelish's thick white eyebrows shot up. "113-A we can
understand--it is afraid of being in some way brought back under
control. But why Trigger?"

"Because," Lyad said carefully, "112 was aware that 113-A intended to
condition Trigger into being its interpreter."

Professor Mantelish's jaw dropped. He swung his head toward Trigger. "Is
that true?"

She nodded. "It's true, all right. We've been working on it, but we
haven't got too far along. Tell you later. Go ahead, Lyad."

The Devagas, naturally, hadn't acted on the king plasmoid's naive
suggestion. Whatever it feared was more than likely to be very useful to
them. Instead they made preparations to bring both 113-A and Trigger
Argee into their possession. They would then have a new, strong
bargaining point in their dealings with their dubious partner. But they
discovered promptly that neither Trigger nor 113-A were at all easy to
come by.

Balmordan now suggested a modification of tactics. The hierarchy had
seen to it that a number of interpreters were available for 112;
Balmordan in consequence had lost much of his early importance and was
anxious to regain it. His proposal was that all efforts should be
directed at obtaining 113-A. Once it was obtained, he himself would
volunteer to become its first interpreter. Trigger Argee, because of the
information she might reveal to others, should be d