"Shut up, Earthman!" snapped the Venusian.
Spike ignored him. "We aren't—" He never finished.
The gun spit at him.
Spike stared at Fish in astonishment. Then he fell forward upon his face.
Lothar looked on foolishly.
The Venusian hissed softly between his teeth. The gun covered them both.
Rusty stared unbelieving. Spike was dead. He suddenly felt very alone. Spike had been merciless, cruel, little different from the others of his kind on Pluto. But he had been a man—an Earthian—a friend....
Lothar swung. Before the green man could squeeze the trigger. Fast. A heavy arm struck the scaly hand, snapped the gun from a broken wrist. The vib-ray fell to the floor.
Rusty watched him, motionless. Lothar grasped the green neck with one hand, placed iron fingers deftly over the squirming head and—as a man would pick up a marble—he plucked out the single eye. Rusty cringed.
Fish screamed. His reptilian arms flailed the air. Lothar slowly dismembered him, tore off his limbs one by one. He yanked the head from the twitching body—hurled the gory thing across the room.