"If you tried to take it from him," Quillan said, "you might have a
showdown on your hands."
"And if this keeps on," Ryter said, "I may prefer a showdown! Another
few rounds of trouble with the Hlat, and the entire operation could
blow up in our faces! The men aren't used to that kind of thing. It's
shaken them up. If we've got to take care of the Brotherhood, I'd
rather do it while I still have an organized group. Where did you
leave Kinmarten, by the way?"
"He's back in the little room with his two guards," Quillan said.
"Well, he should be all right there. We can't spare--" Ryter's body
jerked violently. "_What's that?_"
There had been a single thudding crash somewhere in the level. Then
shouts and cursing.
"Main hall!" Quillan said. "Come on!"
* * * * *
The main hall was a jumble of excitedly jabbering Star men when they
arrived there. Guns waved about, and the various groups were showing a
marked tendency to stand with their backs toward one another and their
faces toward the walls.
Ryter's voice rose in a shout that momentarily shut off the hubbub.
"_What's going on here?_"
Men turned, hands pointed, voices babbled again. Someone nearby said
sharply and distinctly, "... Saw it drop right out of the ceiling!"
Farther down the hall, another group shifted aside enough to disclose
it had been clustered about something which looked a little like the
empty shell of a gigantic black beetle.
The missing section of the suit of space armor had been returned. But
not its occupant.
Quillan moved back a step, turned, went back down the passage from
which they had emerged, pulling the Miam Devil from its holster.
Behind him the commotion continued; Ryter was shouting something about
getting the life-detector units over there. Quillan went left down the
first intersecting corridor, right again on the following one, keeping
the gun slightly raised before him. Around the next corner, he saw the
man on guard over the portal connecting the building levels facing
him, gun pointed.
"What happened?" the guard asked shakily.