ENTOVERSE

Hunt groaned to himself as he realized how completely they had failed to see the obvious: the police and their training class; all the other Jevlenese who had been appearing at PAC over the past few days. But neither he nor anyone else had made the vital connection.

They had dismissed the Obayin assassination—assuming it had been—as purely a move by the Ichena to protect their headworld business. Of course Eubeleus would need somebody to secure the Jevien end of things while he took over Uttan. Even Cullen had missed it. Everyone had been too engrossed with the Entoverse to give anything else a thought.

“You will have been notified by now that the Ganymean occupa­tion of Jevlen is to cease anyway,” Langerif said to Garuth. Evidently there was a leak in the system somewhere. “But to forestall the prospect of one occupying force merely being replaced by another, we, the Jevlenese people, are taking charge of our own future, now. There is our declaration. You will please instruct all personnel under your authority, Ganymean, Thurien, Terran, and Jevlenese, to com­ply. It is not a matter for compromise or negotiation.”

“No . . . that isn’t correct,” Garuth protested. “A motion was merely proposed at JPC. There has been no decision. You—”

Langerif silenced him with a wave. “A mere formality. The spirit of the Council’s intent is quite clear: to minimize risk to persons and property, and to preserve order. The situation here is plainly about to get out of hand. To delay firm action until official orders are issued would be irresponsible. It is therefore our decision to preempt the emergency before it escalates.”

“Don’t buy it,” Hunt murmured. “He’s not the JPC. Neither are the people who wound up his spring. It’s a power grab.”

“This doesn’t concern you. Confine yourself to your own affairs,” Langerif snapped.

His line had been calculated to sway Ganymeans by appealing to reason and noble motives; the token show of force was deliberate, to throw them off balance. And had this been Thuriens as the Jevlenese were used to dealing with, it might have worked. But Garuth was from an earlier epoch of Ganymeans—and he had spent enough time on Earth to absorb a little of human psychology.

“No!” he retorted, straightening up fully. “The terms of my office are quite definite, and there is no emergency about to break out. Who do you think you’re fooling with this charade? We know that you are in league with the Axis. And JPC will very soon know, too. Now get out of my office.”

Langerif whitened and moved his hand pointedly to the butt of his weapon.

“What do you think you’re going to do?” Shilohin asked him

derisively, backing Garuth’s stand. “Your troops aren’t here yet. There’s a room full of PAC security officers just down the hail.”

Garuth stretched out a hand toward a call button on a panel by hi~ desk. But as he did so, Langerif turned and called toward the door­way, and a squad of armed police entered with their weapons at ready, led by another officer.

“Pig!” Nixie hissed. Langerif ignored her and waved his men into position to cover the room.

“I regret to inform you that your security department is not all a~ loyal as you believed,” Langerif sneered. “I gave you an opportunity) to cooperate reasonably, but you force me to be drastic. Very well.’ He motioned sharply to the others in the room. “The rest of you, or your feet. You will go with the officer, now. Trouble will only make things worse.”

“This is an outrage!” Danchekker, who was still standing by the screens, shaking with indignation, found his voice at last. “Do you. imagine for one moment that bringing your guttersnipe politics in here is going to make the slightest—”

“Save it, Chris,” Hunt said resignedly. “This isn’t the time or place.”

While Garuth stood staring helplessly at gunpoint, the others began filing toward the door between the impassive, yellow-uniformed police.

Meanwhile, throughout the building other groups of police and disguised Jevlenese auxiliaries had begun rounding up bewildered Ganymeans from their workstations and offices. In Del Cullen’:

office, Cullen stood, hands raised with two Jevlenese covering him while a police lieutenant scanned through status displays on his desk. side screen. Outside, Koberg and Lebansky had also been taken b~ surprise and were being disarmed and searched. Through the door. way, Cullen could see Koberg measuring up times and distances with his eyes.