A monstrous bolt of energy streaked from the skies, purple-blue death in a pillar a fourth of a mile broad crashed into the heart of New York City, swept up and down Manhattan, across and back, and suddenly vanished.
In fifteen seconds, only a molten hell of fused structures and incinerated millions of human beings remained of the world's first city.
Phobar was crushed, appalled, then utter loathing for this soulless thing poured through him. If only—
"It is useless. You can do nothing," answered the ruler as though it had grasped his thought.
"But why, if you could pick me off the Earth, do you not draw the radium ores in the same way?" Phobar demanded.
"The orange-ray picks up only loose, portable objects. We can and will transport the radium ores here by means of the ray after they have been mined and placed on platforms or disks."
"Why did you select me from all the millions of people on Earth?"
"Solely because you were the first apparent scientist whom our cosmotel chanced upon. It will be up to you to notify your Earth governments of our demand."
"But afterwards!" Phobar burst out aloud. "What then?"
"We will depart."