one of your men. He was going to shoot Marnik at once, but Erarno and
I and his Assassin stopped him. We warned Marnik about the change in
the situation, according to the code, expecting Marnik to go down here
and join you. Instead, he lifted the airboat, zoomed over Girzad's
boat, and let go a rocket blast, setting Girzad's boat on fire. Well,
that was a hostile act, so we all fired after him. We must have hit
something, because the boat went down, trailing smoke, about ten miles
away. Girzad got another airboat out of the hangar and he and his
Assassin started after your man. About that time, your Assassin,
Olirzon--happy reincarnation to him--came up, and the Starpha servants
fired at him, and he fired back and discarnated two of them, and then
jumped down the descent tube. One of the servants jumped after him; I
found his body at the bottom when I came down to warn you formally.
You know what happened after that."

"But why did Prince Jirzyn order our discarnation?" Dalla wanted to
know. "Was it to blame the Statisticalists with it?"

Sarnax, about to answer, broke off suddenly and began firing at the
opening of the ascent tube with a hunting pistol.

"I got him," he said, in a pleased tone. "That was Erarno; he was
always playing tricks with the tubes, climbing down against negative
gravity and up against positive gravity. His body will float up to the
top--Why, Lady Dallona, that was only part of it. You didn't hear
about the big scandal, on the newscast, then?"

"We didn't have it on. What scandal?"

Sarnax laughed. "Oh, the very father and family-head of all scandals!