But as an agent of Thusca, he could afford no time for such neurotic thoughts. He would tell the doctors about it when he returned, but right now there was work. He stood there without moving a muscle, thinking of nothing at all, as if Stanley Martin were only an illusion and didn't really exist. It was a quarter to six. Ten minutes to six. Six o'clock. And footsteps thudding on the concrete stairs a block away. The man in the pork-pie hat was coming to get his car. * * * * * Stan set the stud on his heat gun and waited. An ape. The man came closer and fumbled at the door of his automobile, trying to get the key into the lock. Stan pressed the stud and the violet beam flashed out and splashed on the car door six inches from the man's hand. The paint flared into a smoking fire and a neat, thin line raced down the metal, cutting cleanly through the body and the upholstery and the steel frame. He'd let him squirm for a second, Stan thought coldly, and then move the beam back and cut the ape in two. _Now!_ He never touched the man. There was a spanging sound and the pillar Stan was leaning against suddenly showed concrete chips. He fell backwards and sprawled on the pavement, the violet beam from his heat gun crazily scorching the concrete overhead. Somebody yelled to the man crouched by the car.... "_Run! Run, you fool!_" The man in the pork-pie hat dodged up the ramp. Stan tried to pick him off but the pillar showered concrete again and his aim was spoiled. Then the man was gone and Stan's mind turned to his own problems. The opposition had finally put in an appearance.... "_Come out now and you can come out alive. Fight, and we'll bring you out dead!_" A woman's voice, he thought coldly. Coming from a car about a hundred feet down.... He aimed his heater and exploded the gas tank, the flames whooshing out into the closed space. "_You didn't think we were actually there, did you?_" He fired again and then a steady shower of concrete chips that sprayed his elbow made him glance at the pillar, alarmed. It had been cut entirely away at the top and now it was being chewed away at the bottom, ready to topple over on him. He set his heater for a fan-shaped ray to cover his movements and scrambled out from behind the pillar, desperately trying to dodge over to the line of cars. Something spanged into his shoulder and spun him around. He fell heavily to the pavement, the pain briefly paralyzing his nerves. He waited a split second for the pain to lessen, then tried to scramble for his heater. The cement in front of him exploded into dust and chips that cut his face and almost blinded his eyes. "_Get up!_" * * * * *