When the Earthman rose to go, a thin voice spoke from the shadows: "If this should be your idea of revenge. If our master should die upon your operating table, your end, and that of your wife, will be particularly unpleasant."
"That one is next in line when I am finished," croaked The Assassin.
Although he strained to see among the dancing shadows Jeff could not make out that one's face.
III
Dawn turned the great dome a delicate pink, but the chilled layer of smog within gave the jagged forms of the city a bluish cast. Cold, distorted roofs swept past them as the street escalator bore them down the interior hill. A tiny figure walked with bowed head beside a glint of water in the gray courtyard behind a kidney shaped roof.
"Look sire, it is Konrad. Perhaps he cannot sleep because he knows death is at his shoulder too. From here I could loose my kauri and before the guards awake—"
"No. I'm going to speak with him."
"But sire, if you enter his garden that would give him an excuse to kill you for trespass."
"He wouldn't risk the unfavorable publicity. That is why he is dealing through The Assassin."