The two figures were struggling over some sort of a weapon. A sudden twist of Ryyn's wrist sent it hurtling across the room. Ool scooped it up—a strange sort of gun—and stood ready to aid Ryyn. But it was no longer necessary for Ryyn had pinned the other's arms behind him and now forced him to his feet. He was a dark, squat Martian, who looked like a malevolent frog.
"Gilk!" The name broke from Ool's incredulous lips.
"Gilk," Ryyn agreed. "The only person who had reason to hate you and was clever enough to think up such a fiendish plot. Too clever, really, to be caught in such a simple trap, with you two doing your best to give it away. We were lucky that he was mad with hate, so he didn't notice." He called out and two guards came into the room, one from the door and the other through the broken window. Behind them came the members of the committee.
"Here's our murderer," Ryyn told them. "It shouldn't be hard to prove that he killed the others now that we saw him try to kill Ryaa and Ool."
"Not Ool," Gilk snarled. "I didn't want him to die. Only her. Ool would have stayed alive to suffer again."
"But why?" Ool asked. "We were friends."
"Friends!" Gilk spat the word at him. "After all that you did to me. I invented Gilkite—I alone—the only thing powerful enough to halt an entire invasion force. But you received all the glory."
"Because you were a coward," Ryaa cried, stepping in front of Ool. "You ran away and left him to face the entire fleet alone."
"I wasn't a coward," Gilk told her in a hurt tone. "There was always a chance that something might go wrong; that it might not stop them. Patrol Commanders are plentiful enough; Ool could have been replaced. But there is only one Gilk. No one could have replaced me." His voice rose to a shriek. "Then Ool took all the credit, and they laughed at me. But their great hero isn't a hero any longer."
"You arranged all that, didn't you?" Ryyn asked.