Hadron Dalla had been a former wife of his had been relegated to one
corner of his consciousness and contained there; it was not a fact
that would, at the moment, contribute to the problem or to his
treatment of it.

"The package was delivered while she was at this suicide party," he
considered. "It must, therefore, have been sent by somebody who either
did not know she would be out of the apartment, or who did not expect
it to function until after her return. On the other hand, if her
disappearance was due to hostile action, it was the work of somebody
who knew she was at the feast and did not want her to reach her
apartment again. This would seem to exclude the sender of the package
bomb."

Tortha Karf nodded. He had reached that conclusion, himself.

"Thus," Verkan Vall continued, "if her disappearance was the work of
an enemy, she must have two enemies, each working in ignorance of the
other's plans."

"What do you think she did to provoke such enmity?"

"Well, of course, it just might be that Dalla's normally complicated
love-life had got a little more complicated than usual and
short-circuited on her," Verkan Vall said, out of the fullness of
personal knowledge, "but I doubt that, at the moment. I would think
that this affair has political implications."

"So?" Tortha Karf had not thought of politics as an explanation. He
waited for Verkan Vall to elaborate.