As he reached the landing, Piebr was there. Zouida's son emptied the gun into the body of his father's slayer. Then he threw the gun down upon the bullet-riddled killer.

When Piebr turned, his eyes were bright with tears, but his head tilted in triumph.

Solo caught Wanda in the circle of his arm. He laughed down into her face. "Come on, Agent Kim! You just became one of the boys! And now, in the name of Allah, let's get out of here."

* * *

THE BLACK CAR raced toward the iron gates in the palace wall.

The driver pressed the horn hard. After a moment the gates were shoved open and the car sped through.

Napoleon Solo whistled as their limousine was braked down at the base of the forty steps. There were no servants out to greet them to day, but from all sides green-suited soldiers converged on them, bayonets reflecting the sun blindingly.

"I knew we were heroes," Illya Kuryakin said in sarcasm, "but I never expected a greeting like this."

"Any twenty-one gun salutes we get will be in our backs," Solo agreed, watching the threatening faces of the soldiers.

A dark-skinned officer jerked the door open and screamed orders at them in a dialect.

Solo glanced helplessly at Piebr. "What'd he say?"

Aly David spoke over his shoulder. "We are to get out of the car slowly, with our hands locked on top of our heads."

Solo smiled weakly. "If this is a friendly greeting," he said, "it loses something in translation."

Sheik Zud padded about the eighty-by-fifty conference chamber. The huge council room looked too small to contain the huge man and his massive grief.

Half the room was in darkness.

When Solo, Kuryakin and the others were led into the council room, Zud let them stand for some moments while he strode back and forth, his lion's face contorted with a sadness that furrowed it from brow to jawline.

At last, he turned and faced them. "Piebr!"

Zouida's son stepped forward and knelt near the table in the center of the light near his ruler. "Your Majesty?" he said.

"Piebr, I am being betrayed! By the only people I trusted and loved with all my heart."

"No, Majesty!"

Zud's roar shook the chandeliers, echoed inside the long room. "First, your father. Now you! Gone over to the enemy!"

"Majesty, no! My own father gave his life serving you with his last breath, as I will do if Allah grants it!"

"Don't lie!" Zud roared. "Look!" He waved his arm and an unseen servant snapped a switch. A single, high-powered light played down on a body laid out on a high table draped with robes. The onlookers held their breath.

"Kiell," Piebr whispered.

"Yes. Kiell. We found his body. Slain. Stuffed into a baggage locker at the Kurbot airport! The great Kiell! To be so foully treated in death! Did you kill him? Or did that one there?"

He thrust out his arm, pointing an accusing finger at Solo. "You're the one who impersonated Kiell, aren't you? Clever! In a plastic mask. I could not believe it was Kiell, and yet my heart would not believe I could lose Kiell and Zouida in the same moment."

"No, Majesty!" Piebr cried in anguish. "None of us in this room has betrayed you. We have slain the man who killed both Kiell and my father! The conspiracy of these people was against you, Majesty, not in your interests."

"How can you know of this?" Zud shouted.

Solo stepped forward. "Majesty, Piebr speaks the truth. THRUSH agreed to aid you in a war against Xanra, and in exchange you were to deliver Kuryakin and me to be held as hostages by THRUSH. Isn't that true?"

"I need aid in my battle!" Zud shouted. "Xanra is four times the size of my country, with ten times the population! I take aid where I can find it.'

"Yes. And did you know that THRUSH meant to use Illya Kuryakin and me to achieve the return of a lethal war machine?"

"Yes!" Zud strode back and forth beyond the table. "I was told the weapon would be a great aid in my unequal battle."

"THRUSH wanted to use that weapon––as fearful and evil as the use of the hydrogen bomb. Devastating. Did you want Xanra laid waste?"

Zud tilted his leonine head, jaw thrust forward, but finally he shook his head, his massive shoulders slumping. "I did not understand."

"THRUSH was using you. THRUSH would have helped you win the war against Xanra. But Xanra would be rubble, its people destroyed or deformed. Then the world would see the graphic demonstration of THRUSH'S newest weapon. That was what THRUSH wanted. And when the war with Xanra was ended, its queen victim of that inhuman machine—"

"No!" The growl of agony was torn from Zud's throat.

"Yes!" Solo said relentlessly. "And you would have ended up a puppet of THRUSH, without power, without glory—to live out your life knowing what you had done to your neighbors in a war that doesn't even need to be fought."

Zud straightened to his full height, staring down at Solo. "What are you saying—a useless war?"

"You know it, King Zud. In your heart. Better than I do. Why did you go to war with Xanra? To prove that you could conquer it. To prove to its queen—as you once proved to your mother—how great you were. But you didn't need to do that. Queen Soraya knows your greatness. She loves you."

"What? No woman so beautiful cou1d love such a beast as I."

"Then why did she come here repeatedly on missions of peace, King Zud? Her country is larger, richer than yours. She didn't have to sue for peace, but she did! She even talked of marriage with you."

"No woman would marry me, unless she was forced into it."

"I heard her say she would."

"To stop the war. Only to stop the war."

"No. She loves you. Anyone but you could see it. Just as you should be able to see that Piebr here is as loyal as the slain Kiell, and trained by him to take his place. And Frun—meant to be a diplomat, like the lamented Zouida. And—"

"And Aly David, your most loyal soldier!" Illya Kuryakin said. "Fighting for you, even when his heart broke because he disagreed with what you were doing to Queen Soraya and Xanra. A brilliant soldier, waiting to make your untried armies great."

"Young men," Solo said, "anxious to serve you with their hearts and minds. Ready to make this nation––and you––greater than ever. Especially when you are joined in alliance with the Queen of Xanra through marriage."

Zud prowled the carpeting. He stared at Napoleon Solo, at Illya Kuryakin, at the young men awaiting his decision.

The door of the council chambers was thrown open. A young army officer burst through.

Zud raged. "How dare you burst unannounced—"

"Majesty!" The officer prostrated himself before the sheik. "Word comes that a woman named Pretty Wilde, with the mercenary troops sent into Zabir to aid you, have revolted against you. They have taken over all the refineries."

Zud shook his bead. "We'll get them back." He looked around, uncertainly. "It may take a bit of time, but—"

"Majesty. That is only part of the communiqué. This army has kidnapped Queen Soraya of Xanra as she returned under our escort to her own border. She is being held hostage until you, O King of Lions, agree to carry out your contract with THRUSH."

Zud sank into one of the chairs beside the table. His wide shoulders sagged, his eyes held torment, and he gazed about, distracted.

Aly David stepped forward. "Majesty, if you would permit, I'll take an army and retrieve the refineries. I vow to drive every mercenary across our borders."