"Where is your antidote?" Calvin roared suddenly.
"I ate it."
"You what?"
"I told you I was in the Starhouse. I found the drug, harmeena, and the manner in which it is used. I tried the antidote against it. It was only partially successful."
"Partially—a generous term."
"I have something else, too. The first sample of harmeena to fall into the hands of the SBI."
Calvin's eyes lighted in spite of himself. "If you're telling the truth—"
Roal fumbled in the secret pocket where he had hidden the sphere. His fingers roamed up and down. The pellet was not there.
In sudden anxiety he whipped out a knife and methodically ripped the coat to shreds. The harmeena was gone.
His mind went back over the intervening hours. He had felt the sphere when he had awakened on the desert. He couldn't have lost it in the meantime. Nothing could possibly get out of that secret pocket. Except by—