Sade's grimy bulk stood beside a chunk of plastic at the edge of the littered floor. The sunlight glistened on the pistol in his hand, as it squirted a stream of red flame upon the barrel of Norman's rifle. The gun dropped from Norman's blistered fingers. "You thought you could escape what Vulcan and I can do," Sade said. "None can escape us, for Vulcan and I control the universe from now on." He pointed his pistol to the floor at Norman's feet and pulled the trigger. Norman stepped back as the flame licked up around his shoes. "Keep walking until you fall into that rainbow down there!" "Wait, Sade!" Norman stepped back again as the line of fire followed him. "There's no time for this. That pipe's going to burst wide open any moment!" He shifted from one foot to another, the soles of his shoes burning. "Jump," Sade said quietly. He raised the gun higher. * * * * * Norman retreated another step. Two feet lay between him and the edge of the sheared wall, the end of the floor, and then the misty lethal colors hissing ten feet below. Dorothy scrambled over the plastic wreckage and threw herself at Sade, but the flat of his palm met her face and hurled her aside. The line of fire moved to Norman's toes again, and he stepped back his last step. Like a cobra wavering before its prey, the flame swept back and forth across the floor, inches from Norman's toes, scorching the floor under his feet. He glanced down at the crimson mist, leaping like a fountain under the splinters of plastic jutting out over it. Then he realized that fate had given him his chance--for a price. He had come to Vulcan to find something to save Johnny's life. In the tank in the cruiser out on the field was the fluid that could do that. On the broken wall below him, just over the fountain of death, a piece of the wreckage jutted outward two feet--he could leap to that, swing clear of the mist and reach the ship and be free. He could save Johnny--by leaving Dorothy behind. There could be no compromise. He had no doubt that Sade would kill her the instant he realized the trick. Norman glanced back into Sade's triumphant smile. Suddenly he returned the smile and laughed out loud. "When'd you take your last vaccination, Sade!" he laughed. "Did you know your hair had turned white?" Sade held his smile as steady as his gun. "I'm not leaving you and look for a mirror," he said. "No tricks will save you this time. Those shots are good for 24 hours." "Not with all this raw stuff in the air," Norman laughed. "Look how your hands have withered." "What matter," Sade said, "my Fountain of Youth can restore me again." But his smile loosened, and quick as light his glance dropped to his hands. Norman's knees straightened like steel springs. The length of flame seared his hip as he sprang. Then his fist piled into Sade's heavy jaw.