"That's just a sample," Marvak said, "to show you that I mean business. You're not badly hurt, but the next one will go through your knee-cap. I understand that a bullet through the knee is very painful. Now are you going to tell me what I want to know or are you going to need further persuasion?"
Blood was running down Fradin's coat. He was clutching his shoulder with the other hand, trying to stop the flow of blood. His face was very white. And now there was fear on it, fear that had not been there when he first faced Marvak's gun. I got the fleeting impression that it was not fear of the spy nor of the weapon, but of something else. I also got the impression that it was a terrible fear, a soul-consuming fear, a bleaching, whitening, shuddering fear, a fear greater even than the fear of death....
"All right," the little inventor whispered. "You win. I'll show you what you want."
"That's better," Marvak said, in a satisfied tone. "I don't mind saying that if I make a cleaning on this, I'm quite willing to cut you and the reporter in on it."
He was lying. The only way he would cut us in would be to cut our throats. Both Fradin and I knew it.
"I'm afraid," the inventor said, "that your shot has injured my arm so badly that I will have to ask you to help me."
"Okay," Marvak said. "But remember I have an excellent knowledge of electrical apparatus, so don't try any tricks, like electrocuting me by accident."
"There won't be any trickery involved here," the little inventor whispered through bloodless lips.
I watched. There were two bulky instruments, one of them a transmitter, the other a receiver. The current flow was seemingly directional. It was sent out from the transmitter and caught by the receiver. There was a meter on the transmitter to show how much current was being transmitted and another on the receiver to show how much was getting through.