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.“No, I’m all right.”Leoh looked at him.Hector’s face was haggard, his eyes bleary.“You’ve had enough,” Leoh said quietly.“Please don’t make me stop,” Hector begged.“I.I can’t stop now.Please give me a chance to do better.I’m improving.I lasted twice as long in this afternoon’s duels as I did this morning.Please, don’t end it now.not while I’m completely lost.”Leoh stared at him.“You want to go on?”“Yes, sir.”“And if I say no?”Hector hesitated.Leoh sensed he was struggling with himself.“If you say no,” he answered dully, “then it’ll be no.I can’t argue against you any more.”Leoh was silent for a long moment.Finally he opened a desk drawer and took a small bottle from it.“Here, take a sleep capsule.When you wake up we’ll try again.”It was dawn when they began again.Leoh entered the dueling machine determined to let Hector win.He gave the youthful Star Watchman his choice of weapons and environment.Hector picked one-man scout ships in planetary orbits.Their weapons were conventional laser beams.But despite his own conscious desire, Leoh found himself winning! The ships spiraled around an unnamed planet, their paths intersecting at least once in every orbit.The problem was to estimate your opponent’s orbital position, and then program your own ship so that you would arrive at that position either behind or to one side of him.Then you could train your guns on him before he could turn on you.The problem should have been an easy one for Hector, with his knack for intuitive mental calculation.But Leoh scored the first hit.Hector had piloted his ship into an excellent firing position, but his shot went wide.Leoh maneuvered clumsily, but he managed to register a trifling hit on the side of Hector’s ship.In the next three passes, Leoh scored two more hits.Hector’s ship was badly damaged now.In return, the Star Watchman had landed one glancing shot on Leoh’s ship.They came around again, and once more Leoh had outguessed his young opponent.He trained his guns on Hector’s ship, then hesitated with his hand poised above the firing button.Don't kill him again, he warned himself.His mind can't take another defeat.But Leoh’s hand, almost of its own will, reached the button and touched it lightly; another gram of pressure and the guns would fire.In that instant’s hesitation, Hector pulled his crippled ship around and aimed at Leoh.The Watchman fired a searing blast that jarred Leoh’s ship from end to end.Leoh’s hand slammed down on the firing button; whether he intended to do it or not, he didn’t know.Leoh’s shot raked Hector’s ship but didn’t stop it.The two vehicles were hurtling directly at each other.Leoh tried desperately to avert a collision, but Hector bore in grimly, matching Leoh’s maneuvers with his own.The two ships smashed together and exploded.Abruptly, Leoh found himself in the cramped booth of the dueling machine, his body cold and damp with perspiration, his hands trembling.He squeezed out of the booth and took a deep breath.Warm sunlight was streaming into the high-vaulted room.The white walls gleamed brilliantly.Through the tall windows he could see trees and early students and clouds in the sky.Hector walked up to him.For the first time in several days, the Watchman was smiling.Not much, but smiling.“Well, we.uh, broke even on that one.”Leoh smiled back, somewhat shakily.“Yes.It was.quite an experience.I’ve never died before.”Hector fidgeted.“It’s not so bad, I guess.It.sort of, well, it sort of shatters you, though.”“Yes.I can see that now.”“Try another duel?” Hector asked, nodding toward the machine.“No.Not now.Let’s get out of this place for a few hours.Are you hungry?”“Starved.”They fought several more duels over the next day and a half.Hector won three of them.It was late afternoon when Leoh called a halt.“We can get in another couple,” the Watchman said.“No need,” said Leoh.“I have all the data I require.Tomorrow Massan meets Odal, unless we can put a stop to it.We’ve got much to do before tomorrow morning.”Hector sagged into the couch.“Just as well.I think I’ve aged seven years in the past seven days.”“No, my boy,” Leoh said gently, “you haven’t aged.You’ve matured.”It was deep twilight when the ground car slid to a halt on its cushion of compressed air before the Kerak embassy.“I still think it’s a mistake to go in there,” Hector said.“I mean, you could’ve called him on the tri-di, couldn’t you?”Leoh shook his head.“Never give an agency of any government the opportunity to say, ‘hold the line a moment.’ They huddle together and consider what to do with you.Nineteen times out of twenty, they’ll end by passing you to another department or transferring your call to a taped, ‘So sorry,’ message.”“Still,” Hector insisted, “you’re sort of, well, stepping into enemy territory.”“They wouldn’t dare harm us.”Hector didn’t reply, but he looked unconvinced.“Look,” Leoh said, “there are only two men alive who can shed light on this matter.One of them is Dulaq, and his mind is closed to us for an indefinite time.Odal is the only other man who knows what happened in those duels.”Hector shook his head skeptically.Leoh shrugged, and opened the door of the ground car.Hector had no choice but to get out and follow him as he walked up the pathway to the main entrance of the embassy building
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