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"In a way," Lyad said, "Pilli brings us to that matter of business I mentioned this afternoon." The group's eyes shifted over to her. She smiled. "We have good scientists on Tranest," she said, "as Pilli, I think, demonstrates." She nodded at Balmordan. "There are good scientists in the Devagas Union.
She smiled. "How right you are, First Lady!" Quillan said. He tapped a breast pocket. "Scrambler and distorter present and in action." "And you, Balmordan?" "I must admit," Balmordan said pleasantly, "that I thought it wise to take certain precautions." "Very wise!" said Lyad. Her glance shifted, with some amusement in it, to Pluly. "Belchik?"
They had no difficulty in obtaining human volunteers to act as subjects for experimental work. Balmordan appointed three of his least valuable crew members as volunteers for the plasmoid's experiments. The first of the three died almost immediately. The plasmoid, it turned out, lacked understanding of, among other things, the use and need of anesthetics.
So could the top ranks of the Devagas hierarchy. Lyad, at the moment, could not. She did know that Trigger Argee's importance was associated directly with that of plasmoid 113-A. This information had been obtained from a Devagas operator, now dead. Not Balmordan. The operator had been in charge of the attempted pickup on Evalee.
"By offering very large sums of money, or equivalent inducements, to people who are in a position to get them for me," said Lyad. Quillan tut-tutted disapprovingly. "The First Lady's mind," he told Trigger, "turns readily to illegal methods." "When necessary," Lyad said undisturbed, "as it is here." "How about you, sir?" Quillan asked Balmordan.
"Now I," Lyad told the company, "shall be more honest. The information released in those seminars is of no value whatever. He" she nodded at the Devagas scientist "and I are going to Manon with the same goal in mind. That is to obtain plasmoids for our government laboratories." Balmordan smiled amiably. Trigger asked. "How do you intend to obtain them?"
Mantelish smacked his lips thoughtfully and shook his head. "Not good!" he said. "Not at all good! I'm beginning to think " He paused a moment. "Go on, Lyad." The hierarchy was now giving renewed consideration to a curious request the plasmoid had made almost as soon as Balmordan became capable of understanding it. The request had been to find and destroy plasmoid 113-A.
In all three cases, the headaches and nightmares stopped in about a week. The first subject in the series was beginning to understand the plasmoid. Balmordan listened to his reports. He had his three surviving volunteers given very extensive physical and psychological tests. They seemed to be in fine condition. Balmordan now had the operation performed on himself.
He did not understand immediately what he saw, but he realized the probable importance of understanding it. He had the plasmoids and their lifeless human research object transferred to the Devagas ship and settled down to observe what they did. Released, the working plasmoid went back immediately to its task. It completed it. Then Balmordan and, presumably, the plasmoids waited. Nothing happened.
"Are we to understand that you also would be interested in the purchase of a middling plasmoid or two?" "I would be, naturally," Balmordan said. "But not at the risk of causing trouble for my government." "Of course not," Quillan said. He thought a moment. "You, Belchy?" he asked. Pluly looked alarmed. "No! No! No!" he said hastily. He blinked wildly. "I'll stick to the shipping business.
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