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Morrissto"

and his voice ground hoarsely to a halt

"I&039; any definite stateestion"

Morriss looked helplessly about, turning fro each pair of eyes meet his in fixed fascination

He choked out, "This is mad, absolutely insane I was the first to report all this-this-trouble on Venus Find the original report in Council headquarters My name is on it Why should I call in the Council if I wereAnd my motive? Eh? My motive?"

Councillance he shot in Turner&039;s direction, Biguessed that this form of inter-Council squabble in front of an outsider was not to his liking

Still, Evans said, "It would explain the effort Dr Morriss ht stumble on the truth I had found half of it, certainly"

Morriss was breathing heavily "I deny that T ever did such a thing All this is a conspiracy of soo hard in the end for any of you who join in this I will have justice"

"Are you i that you wish a Council trial?" asked Lucky "Do you want to plead your case before aof the assembled Central Co to, of course, was the procedure ordained for the trial of councilainst the Council and the Solar Confederation In all the history of the Council, not one man had ever had to stand such a trial

At its mention, whatever shreds of control Morriss had used to restrain his feelings vanished Roaring, he scrambled to his feet and hurtled blindly at Lucky

Lucky rolled nimbly up and over the arestured quickly at Big for Bigiven hih the lock of Aphrodite&039;s dome

A blaster bolt shot out It was at low intensity but its ionizing radiations produced the pungent odor of ozone in the air

Matters remained so for a ainst the overturned chair, , like a sainst his hip as though he had been frozen in the act of shooting

And the target of the blaster bolt lay destroyed and in ruins upon the floor

Lou Evans found his breath first, but it was only for a sharp exclamation, "What in space"

Lyman Turner whispered, "What have you done?"

Morriss, panting fro, but he rolled his eyes ments Lyman Turner&039;s black corated

Turner&039;s voice rose "My computer! You idiot! What have you done?"

Lucky said sternly, "Only what he had to do, Turner Now, everyone quiet"

He turned to Morriss, helped that pluies, Dr Morriss, but I had to make certain that Turner&039;s attention was completely misdirected I had to use you for that purpose"

Morriss said, "You mean you don&039;t suspect me of- of"

"Not for one minute," said Lucky "I never did"

Morriss ry, "Then suppose you explain, Starr"

Lucky said, "Before this conference, I never dared tell anyone that I thought sos I couldn&039;t even state it in e to Earth It seeht be desperate enough to take so one of the cities-and hold the possibility ol a repetition over the heads of all of us as black in my suspicions, I hoped he would hold off and play for time or, at most, try to kill only my friends and myself

"At this conference I could speak of the matter because I believed the man in question to be present However, I dared not take action against hiht place us under control despite the presence of the petroleum and for fear that his actions thereafter would be drastic First I had to distract his attention thoroughly to make sure that, for a few seconds at least, he would be too absorbed in the surface activities of the group to detect, via his V-frog tools, the strong es in the building, but he s in other parts of the city as he was able to use V-frogs out on the ocean&039;s surface miles away from Aphrodite

"To distract him then, I accused you, Dr Morriss I couldn&039;t warn you in advance because I wanted your emotions to be authentic-and they were admirably so Your attack on me was all that was needed"

Morriss withdrew a large handkerchief fro forehead "That was pretty drastic, Lucky, but I think I understand Turner is the man, then?"

"He is," said Lucky

Turner was on his knees, scrabbling a the fused and shattered shards of his instrument He looked up with hate-filled eyes, "You&039;ve destroyed my computer"

"I doubt that it was a computer," said Lucky "It was too inseparable a companion of yours When I firstit to coainst the threatened flood Right now you have it with you presumably to help you if you should require new coth of those same inner barriers"

Lucky paused, then went on with a hard calmness in his voice "But I ca after the threatened flood I wasto ask you so and you knew that Yet you had your co yourself to leave it in the next room It had to be with you, at your feet Why?"

Turner said desperately "It was my own construction I was fond of it I always carried it with hed some twenty-five pounds Rather heavy, even for affection Could it be that it was the device you used to s at all tunes?"

"How do you intend to prove that?" flashed back Turner "You said I myself was a victim Everyone here is witness to that"