"Mekronal—? This creature can make it? From basic elements found outside Saturn's system?"
"Yes."
"Then he must die!"
Boone rocked under the onslaught. He groped for words; found none.
The other kept on talking: "There are things you should know, Boone—and these guards here are men I can trust, so I'll tell you." Martin Krobis smiled thinly. "You always forget that I stand for the Cartel. We're reaching for power, those of us high in it. Mekronal is our weapon. So long as it's ours alone, that power keeps growing. Make it free to all comers, and IC's backbone is broken."
"You mean that you'd wipe out a whole culture to hold it? You'd bring war with the Helgae for the sake of the Cartel?"
"Are you stupid enough that you have to ask me?" Krobis' words dripped contempt. "We'd do even more, you fool—as witness our gambit with chandak?"
"Your gambit—?" Boone rocked again.
"So I term it." Now the other was chuckling. "Consider that report Terral showed you, for instance. I meant him to have it."
"Then—chandak—"