“I think all a nuclear weapon does is simulate a chain reaction into existence. And in addition to blowing out the planet crust, the fusion continued. And is probably still going on and may well go on for millions of years.

"Psychlo is no longer a planet. It 's a flaming sun!”

Angus nodded. “And all the transshipment rigs in the whole Psychlo empire, keeping schedule, not knowing about it, fired into that radioactive sun and blew themselves to bits!”

Jonnie nodded, a bit spent. “Just like we did in Denver a year later.” He shuddered. "Terl fired himself into a holocaust. Poor Terl.”

That's what it took to yank Angus out of it. “Poor Terl! After all the rotten things the demon did? Jonnie, I sometimes wonder about you. You can be cool as ice and then all of a sudden you come out with something like 'poor Terl'!'

“It would be an awful way to die,” said Jonnie.

Angus straightened up. “Well!” he said just like he had popped up out of a dive in the lake. "Psychlo is gone! The empire is gone! And that's one thing we don't have to worry about anymore! Good riddance!”

Chapter 2

Despite emotional reactions, Jonnie had been raised a hunter. His had been a life in the mountains, much of it spent alone on trails where pumas and grizzlies and wolves could lurk. There were times when you could feel a planning predator behind you, watching for a false move, concentrated on intentions of its own.

For the last fifteen seconds he had had that feeling. Danger!

He spun about, tensed for action.

The small gray man behind him said, “Oh, didn't you know?”

Jonnie let his hand fall away from his gun butt.

The small gray man appeared not to have noticed. “A lot adds up now that I didn't understand before. Yes, I fear

Psychlo is gone. We knew that, of course. We weren't sure how.”

Angus said, “Are there any Psychlos left?

The small gray man shook his head.

The other small gray man, who had arrived by teleportation, had been lurking in the shadows. He came forward now. “We checked it and checked it. Probes told us Psychlo was gone only a couple of weeks after it happened. We've had ships out everywhere....”

The first small gray man had glanced at him. A cautionary glance?

The other small gray man smoothly shifted what he was going to say. “The transshipment rigs were all at minesite centrals or at regency palaces: that was company custom. All their executive personnel and high-ranking officers on planets were quartered near the platforms– pure laziness, really, so they wouldn't have far to walk and could get dispatches sooner. And the bulk of their breathe-gas storage was also in the same area.

“The first word they got– they never went in much for space travel as such, since they had a monopoly on teleportation-and it wouldn't have gotten back to them soon enough any way– was when they fired into

Psychlo.

“We of course couldn't examine all universes, but knowing Psychlos, we are positive there are no transshipment rigs or central compounds or executives left. We ourselves gave it up over five months ago. The time limit would have been six months for breathe-gas to last. And that expired six months ago.”

Jonnie had been watching them carefully. These men were hiding something. And they wanted something. They were a threat. Down deep he knew that. Their manner was easy. They were very pleasant and smooth. But their frankness was a pose.

“How can you be sure,” said Jonnie, “that some Psychlo engineer didn't build a transshipment rig?”

“Oh,” said the second small gray man, “he would have fired straight to us at once if he avoided firing into Psychlo. The rig nearest us blew to bits. Took half a city with it. Horrible. Just by a freak, I was out sailing with my family that day, miles away. However, our own offices are fifteen levels underground.”

Was the original small gray man giving him a warning sign? In any case, he got interested in his pointed fingernails.

Angus said, “I don't see any planets listed that have the same atmosphere as Psychlo. Are there any other planets that have that breathe-gas?"

The two small gray men thought it over. Then the one who had come latest said, "Fobia. I don't think they'd list it.” The two of them laughed about something.

The original one said, “Excuse us. It 's kind of a joke. The best-kept state secrets of Psychlo are all a kind of open book in our business. That they would omit listing 'Fobia' is so typically Psychlo. It 's where they exiled King Hak about two hundred sixty-one thousand years ago. It 's the only other planet in that system, and it is so much further out than Psychlo, you can't even see it from the home planet with an unaided eye. It is so cold, its atmosphere has liquefied and lies in lakes on the surface. They built a little dome there and exiled Hak and his fellow conspirators and then got so scared he'd escape they sent assassins in and killed them all. Typically Psychlo. They cut the whole thing out of their schoolbooks. Let's see your astrographic tables.” He took them, looked a while, and then laughed and showed his companion. “Not there! An omitted planet right in their own system!”

In response to Jonnie's look, the second one said, “No, not even any Psychlos there, and nothing going on there either. It 's nothing but breathe-gas ice and very tiny anyway. As of a couple of weeks ago, probes showed it totally deserted. No, you can be certain that's the end of the Psychlos. I saw on scans I reviewed here that you have a very few still alive, but you didn't get them to build this!” He patted the side of the console dragon. “For reasons best known to Psychlos they'd kill themselves first!” He shook his head. “There were a few alive.

Engineers in branch minesites. And don't think one didn't try to persuade them! They're all dead now.”

Was the original one trying to turn the other one off? But the new one was a bit better dressed and appeared to be the superior of the other.

“I think,” said the original one, “that we really ought to get together for a formal conference. There are some things to take up.”

Ah, thought Jonnie. Now we get to it. "I’m not a member of the government,” he hedged.

The newest arrival said, “We're aware of that. But you do enjoy its confidence. We were thinking that possibly if you and the two of us could have a talk, you might assist us to arrange a conference with your government.”

“A talk about having a serious talk,” said the other.

Jonnie had an inspiration. He recalled the first gray man had drunk yarb tea. "I’ll be having dinner in half an hour. If you can eat our food, I’d be pleased to have you join me.”

“Oh, we eat anything,” said the newest small gray man. “Anything there is. We would be so pleased.”

“Half an hour it is,” said Jonnie. And he left to tell Chong-won he had dinner guests after all.

Now maybe he'd find out the threat that these two posed. He wasn't imagining it. These two were dangerous!