One door swung partly open and a swarthy, powerful man stepped hastily out. He carried an atomic projector. "Halt!" he commanded. "Who are you?" "Oh, you don't need to get excited, we're rebels, too," Crystal told him. "Who's here?" "Who is it, Max?" a pleasant voice inquired from the dim hallway. "Two more of the rebels, sir," the guard replied woodenly. "Oh--rebels? Oh, yes, of course. Show them in, Max." The guard stood respectfully aside as Crystal and Brian entered the huge, echoing chamber. "To your right," the guard directed and they entered a small, exquisite room. The man behind the desk seemed to fit perfectly into this cultured setting, he was small and neat, silver hair frosted his temples, framing gentle, delicate features. He smiled with pleasant, disarming frankness as he rose to greet them. "You'll have to excuse Max, we didn't know you were coming, of course. Just make yourselves at home. Young Jim Thornton arrived a short while ago. You'll be able to see him presently. You'll be hungry, of course. Max, bring some refreshment." "Have many of us arrived?" Crystal asked anxiously. "I'm sorry to say, very few. Just Jim Thornton and his party and you and Mr. Hanson." Brian started. "How do you now know my name?" he asked in surprise. "Oh, we've all heard of you, Mr. Hanson, and how you got Miss James out of Venus City. Brilliant work, I must say, and the way you routed the police in the caverns was truly a remarkable accomplishment. But--what made you come to this place? We've not been established here long." "Grenville Carlton told us about it," Crystal said briefly. "Carlton? Old Grenville. How is he?" "He's dead." Crystal's face hardened to a white mask of hatred at the memory. "We found him impaled on a thorn bush in front of the ruins of his own house." Her words were brutally blunt with the tremendous surge of emotion behind them. "Impaled ... _tut tut tut_ ... my goodness, how terrible! Do you know who could have done it?" "Yes. We found Carlton before he died. It was that rat Serono Zeburzac who killed him." "Oh--do you know what this Serono Zeburzac looks like?" "We've never seen him," Crystal cut in grimly, "but my father did, over the sights of an atomic flame projector. Serono Zeburzac has no left hand." "Oh--" The gray-haired man behind the desk was interrupted by a terrible scream of human agony. "No ... NO--" The words rose in a tortured frenzy. "Oh, God!... Not that again.... AAAAaaaaa--" * * * * * Crystal leaped to her feet. "Jim--that was Jim Thornton! What's happened--" Her eyes turned in startled question to the slight, calm figure behind the desk. His benign expression of quiet peace had not been disturbed in the slightest by the soul-rending cry. He placed his fingertips precisely together.