“You see, Cleopatra,” Kinnison explained, as the dreadful needle beam expired, “I’ve got plenty of stuff if I want to—or have to—use it. The boys up there will stick a needle like that through the brain of anyone or everyone in this room if I give the word. I don’t want to kill any of you unless it’s necessary, as I explained to your misbarbered friend here, but I am leaving here alive and all in one piece, and I’m taking this Aldebaranian along with me, in the same condition. If I must, I’ll lay down a barrage like that sample you just saw, and only the zwilnik and I will get out alive. How about it?”
“What are you going to do with the stranger?” the Lyranian asked, avoiding the issue.
“I’m going to take some information away from her, that’s all. Why? What were you going to do with her
