No wonder the Anolyn could create endless mutations. The effects of hard radiation on the genes were known to every school child in the Galactic Federation. He was still standing beside the window when the faint sound of cymbals broke the silence. "Here they come!" Tabak whispered. Reiloc stiffened, jerked out his sword. He put his hand to the back of his neck as if to reassure himself that the Anolyn was actually gone. Jupiter had removed it while they waited. Its absence seemed to give the Nehogan confidence. "You both know what to do?" Jupiter asked. "Yes." He adjusted the pack over his shoulders, picked up his carbine, assured himself that a cartridge lay in the chamber. The clash of cymbals was louder, reinforced by the chant of voices. He went to the door, followed by Reiloc and Tabak. There was a short dark passage beyond which ended abruptly in a solid wall. A well opened in the ceiling overhead, though, with a ladder bolted inside it. He gave Tabak a boost up into the well, then Reiloc. In a moment they'd climbed out of sight. Jupiter leaped upward, caught the bottom rung, pulled himself hand over hand up into the thick darkness. The clash of cymbals, the chant of voices had a hollow, muffled quality. He heard Tabak pant, then whisper, "I've got it open!" The cymbals were suddenly louder. He crawled out of the well on Reiloc's heels, replaced the cover. They were inside the sanctum, he saw, where he'd been left when he had first been brought to the city by the _Dra Dur_. The huge radioactive statue of the Anolyn was the only source of light. It shed a chill greenish pallor through the circular temple room. The room itself was at least a hundred feet across, surrounded by pillared cloisters. They had come up behind the pillars where the feeble light from the idol scarcely reached. The rhythmic chant came from the other side of the floor. Jupiter sucked in his breath. A procession of humans was filing out of the darkness. A scrawny, naked Caligan was in the lead, making cabalistic signs with a phallic instrument resembling the Egyptian sistrum as he moved in front of the idol. Behind him came the others, two by two--wild Kagans fresh from the jungle, a man with four arms, several with prehensile tails, some with fur and some hairless. They walked with the same dreamy preoccupied air of the humans that Jupiter had seen in the courtyard, and prostrated themselves before the glowing idol. They were possessed, dominated by the lone Anolyn who brought up the rear. Lete was the fourth from the end. The cymbals suddenly clashed and fell silent. The ritual was about to begin. Jupiter brought the rifle to his shoulder, took careful aim at the purple-shelled octopod directing the ceremony, pulled the trigger. VII The shot reverberated in the chamber of horrors like a clap of thunder. The lone Anolyn slumped forward, half its head shot away.