“Until? Until? I want the Acquataine Cluster, not excuses!”
“And you shall have it,” Marshal Lugal promised. “As soon as the army is re-equipped and….”
“As soon as! Untill” Kanus’ voice rose to a scream. “We had a plan of conquest and it failed. I should have the lot of you thrown to the dogs! And you, Kor; this was your operation, your plan. You picked this mind reader … Odal. He was to be the express instrument of my will. And he failed! You both failed. Twice! Can you give me any reason for allowing you to continue to pollute the air with your presence?”
Kor replied evenly, “The Acquataine government is still very shaky and ripe for plucking. Men sympathetic to you, my Leader, have gained important posts in that government. Moreover, despite the failures of Major Odal, we are now on the verge of perfecting a new secret weapon, a weapon so powerful that….”
“A secret weapon?” Kanus’ eyes lit up.
Kor lowered his voice a notch. “It may be possible, our scientists believe, to use a telepath such as Odal and the dueling machine to transport objects from one place to another—over any distance, almost instantaneously.”
Kanus sat silent for a moment, digesting the information. Then he asked:
“Whole armies?”
“Yes.”
“Anywhere in the galaxy?”
“Wherever there is a dueling machine.”
Kanus rose slowly, dramatically, from his chair and stepped over to the huge star map that spanned one entire wall of the spacious room. He swept the whole map with an all-inclusive gesture and shouted:
“Anywhere! I can strike anywhere. And they will never know what hit them!”