turning white. “Let's get out of here.” He and his bodyguards ran through the back of the house out of the garage. Blessing, ahead of the rest, leaped into one of the cars and started the engine. The door from the house shattered and Quest burst through. The two guards turned and fired together. He could be hurt by bullets. He was staggered momentarily. Then, in a blur of motion, he sprang forward and swept the guards aside with one hand with such force that they skidded across the floor and lay in an unconscious heap against the rear of the garage. Trella had opened the door of the car, but it was wrenched from her hand as Blessing stepped on the accelerator and it leaped into the driveway with spinning wheels. Quest was after it, like a chunky deer, running faster than Trella had ever seen a man run before. Blessing slowed for the turn at the end of the driveway and glanced back over his shoulder. Seeing Quest almost upon him, he slammed down the accelerator and twisted the wheel hard. The car whipped into the street, careened, and rolled over and over, bringing up against a tree on the other side in a twisted tangle of wreckage. With a horrified gasp, Trella ran down the driveway toward the smoking heap of metal. Quest was already beside it, probing it. As she reached his side, he lifted the torn body of Dom Blessing. Blessing was dead. “I'm lucky,” said Quest soberly. “I would have murdered him.” “But why, Quest? I knew he was afraid of you, but he didn't tell me why.” “It was conditioned into me,” answered Quest “I didn't know 60it until just now, when it ended, but my father conditioned me psychologically from my birth to the task of hunting down Dom Blessing and killing him. It was an unconscious drive in me that wouldn't release me until the task was finished. 60 “You see, Blessing was my father's assistant on Ganymede. Right after my father completed development of the surgiscope, he and my mother blasted off for Io. Blessing wanted the valuable rights to the surgiscope, and he
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