"I must warn you not to touch any of those buttons on your desk," I said. "It would give me a great deal of pleasure to drill you and I won't go out of my way for an opportunity."
"Wh-what d-d-do you w-w-ant?" he asked, turning pale.
"One day you offered me a million dollars to take Miss Mayo's life," I said. "Now I'm asking you to contribute an equal amount to save it. However, I'm willing to take it out in trade. I want you to pilot one of your ships for me to Rihlon."
"Impossible!" Keeshwar said, regaining some of his composure. "I couldn't leave my business for a period long enough to make the trip."
"If you don't leave your business to make the trip right now you won't exist any more," I warned casually. I reached into my pocket and brought out a silencer, which I fitted to the end of the pistol barrel. I unfastened the safety and aimed deliberately.
The space ship containing the terrestrial half of Trella Mayo, in company with myself, Blake, two other scientists and Gustav Keeshwar, arrived on Rihlon three months later. Keeshwar, who had had a pistol trained on him almost every instant since I had called at his office, was released and permitted to return to earth. He did not know that I had left the instructions on earth for his arrest for felonious assault the minute he landed.
We located Trella's Rihlon laboratory. It was the matter of a few minutes to make the connection of the broken wire and to finish the translation of her two halves.
Trella stepped out of her quartz prison, swayed unsteadily for a second on her feet, and then collapsed.
"How on earth did you do it?" she asked. "How did you reconcile the irrational number?"