"Ve see," the Leader snorted. "So!" He turned to the guards and barked an order that touched off a confusion of explosion and gun smoke. In the moment that ensued, as the smoke settled, there was a tense silence. This was followed by a many-throated cry of alarm. Toffee, still smiling, and completely unscathed, stepped lightly through the screen of smoke and presented herself to the company at large. "What would you like for an encore?" she asked. She did not bother, of course, to explain that she could not possibly be destroyed as long as Marc's mind held the image of her as a live being. She would always be just as Marc imagined her and he quite evidently was not thinking of her as dead at the moment. * * * * * As she moved forward, the guards took a faltering step backwards. Then, as a man, they turned and fled the room, slamming the door after them. Toffee shrugged lightly, turned and gazed about. The Leader was no longer in evidence. She paused to consider briefly, then crossed to the large desk in the center of the room, and bent down to peer underneath. "You may as well come out," she said. "I see you." The Leader's head appeared apprehensively in the opening. "Go vay," he said. "Vhy you not dad? You crazy?" "Crawl out of there, Sam," Toffee commanded. "Loosen that tight collar of yours and get set for a lesson in future history. You can frolic about on the floor later." Slowly the great man emerged and stood before her. Toffee's refusal to die or even get decently dented had shaken him to the very foundations. Furtively he eyed the bullet-scarred wall. "Shame," Toffee said. "You've been naughty, Jasper. Sit down." He did as he was told, looking as though he might burst into tears at any moment. "Vhy you not dad lak hangnail?" he insisted. "You got an iron gordle?" "I simply can't be killed," Toffee said. "I just can't seem to bring myself around to a serious frame of mind about guns and knives and that sort of trash. Which leads me to the problem at hand. I've got a plan for you, kiddo, and though it won't take five years, we've got to shake a leg." She glanced at the row of buttons and the speaker on the desk. "You know what you're going to do?" "No," the Leader said warily. "Vhat?" "You're going to start pressing those buttons, one at a time, from right to left. You're going to talk to all the big shots wired to those buttons and you're going to order the country demobilized, tonight." "Hah?" the Leader said. "And since vhen?" "Right now," Toffee said. "You are going to have every bomb and every facility for making bombs blown to dust in the cool of the night. Every piece of live ammunition in the country is going to be laid to rest. By your order. So get busy and start having the danger areas cleared." The Leader only stared at her in blinking disbelief. "Voop!" he burped with deep emotion. "And what is the meaning of that remark?" Toffee asked.