Baring his own teeth in a death's-head grin, he dug the light-lance deeper into Sark's rolls of flesh. He said: "If the things you say are true, _Gar_ Sark, then I must kill you now, before you have the chance to slay me." He allowed himself the luxury of a thin, wry smile. "In fact, perhaps it would be best that way. With you dead, your men might pick me as their leader...." Silence echoed for a moment long as eternity, while their eyes locked in a fierce, interminable battle. Then, slowly, Sark smiled and shook his head. His webbed fingers caressed the switch set in his chair-arm. "You'll never kill me, warrior," he answered Haral. "I have a reason for this riding-chair, a reason beyond mere comfort." Haral said nothing. "This switch"--the raider closed his hand about it--"connects with the box that hangs beneath me. A cymosynthesizer box, you may have guessed." "A cymosynthesizer--?" "A very special kind of cymosynthesizer, warrior." Sark chuckled grimly. "The multiplying waves of energy it radiates are synthesized and focused on the core of this pygmy planetoid of Ulna. When they strike it, they'll disrupt its whole atomic structure and set up a disintegrative chain reaction." Haral stared at him, unbelieving. "You mean--?" "I mean that I hold the power to destroy this whole world within my hand!" Sark cried in sudden, explosive anger. "This is my protection against you and all others! I have but to throw this switch, and Ulna itself will be torn asunder--and you and the woman and all else with it! If I die, you die, also! That is my answer to you, _chitza_!" * * * * * Haral said tightly: "You lie! No cymosynthesizer can set up an initiating wave strong enough to tear apart a whole planet!" "Then try me! Make me prove it!" the raider chieftain spat. "It's simple, warrior! Just trigger a beam from your light-lance through me! As I die, I'll still throw the switch, and there will be your answer!" Haral sat very still. He was gripping his lance's shaft so hard that the very bones of his fingers ached. A thin rill of sweat ran down his spine. Yet he could not fight off the spell of shock that gripped him. As if sensing it, Sark spoke once more in coaxing tones: "You make your task hard, warrior. There is an easier way. Give up this madness, this trying to beat me and destroy me. Daring is a virtue I, too, admire. Stay with me and I'll make you a captain in my fleet, give you a ship so you can raid again. Then, when I've won this thrice-cursed Xaymar's secret, together we'll reach out across the universe to bring all planets into our power. Or, if it's the woman you want,"--he laughed his smirking, obscene laugh--"why, as soon as she's told me the things I want to know, I'll let you have her--" Haral felt Kyla's slim body stiffen against him. A tremor ran through her. His answer to Sark came almost without volition. "No." "What--?"