Bates roared a curse, reached back, and swung a haymaker at the Angel’s head. The Angel ducked, and the huge man’s fist went right through the wall. While he was trying to extricate his hand, the Angel reached forward, made two incredibly quick motions with his right hand, and stepped aside.

Bates bellowed another curse as he tried once again to pull his hand out of the wall. Then a curious expression spread across his face, and he slowly looked down to where his innards were spilling out through the slash in the front of his coat.

“I don’t believe it!” he muttered, trying to hold himself together with his free hand.

The Angel retriggered his weapon to the mechanism hidden beneath his sleeve.

“But I’m ManMountain Bates!” murmured the giant incredulously, and died.

“My God!” exclaimed Virtue, staring with morbid fascination at Bates, who still hung from the wall by his hand. “What did you cut him with?”

“Something sharp,” replied the Angel calmly. He walked over to the registration desk. “You’d better call the police,” he said.

“I hit the alarm the second that guy broke down the door,” answered the clerk, his face pale and sweating. “They’ll be here any minute now.”

“I trust that you’ll be willing to testify that I killed him in self-defense,” continued the Angel.

“Absolutely, Mr.... ah ... Mr. Angel?”

The Angel stared at him for a moment, then turned to Virtue.

“This was your fault, you know,” he said.

“Mine?” she repeated.

He nodded. “If you hadn’t promised Terwilliger that I’d protect him, he wouldn’t have waited around here until Bates showed up.”

“Then Bates would have killed him two hundred feet away from here, or half a mile, or at the spaceport,” said Virtue. “Don’t go blaming me for that.”

“But I wouldn’t have had to kill Bates,” explained the Angel patiently. “It was just wasted effort. He’s not worth a credit anywhere in the Frontier.”

“That’s all he represents to you?” said Virtue unbelievingly. “Just a wasted effort? My God, he was Leviathan himself, just like he said!”

“He was just a man. He bled like any other.”

The police arrived then, and the Angel spent the next couple of minutes recounting the events to a very respectful officer, who had the good sense not to ask him to produce his passport.

Finally, after he finished making his statement, and the officer was interviewing the desk clerk, and two more policemen were trying to remove Bates’s hand from the wall, the Angel walked over to Virtue once again.

“By the way, exactly what was it that Terwilliger did for you in exchange for my protection?”

“Nothing.”

“I asked you a question,” he said. “I expect an answer.”