In the study, the Head was trying not to look at the 'gun.'

"But don't be fooled," Barr was saying. "This could kill you just as efficiently and much more unpleasantly than any gun. However, it could do more."

"What could be 'more' than death?" the Head enquired, almost amused.

He sat back and eyed her. It was a long, searching look, and it took considerable self-control on Hilda's part to prevent herself from flinching.

"Tell me something, Hilda," he began conversationally. "What do you fear most?"

"Not death, certainly! Or not in the way that some do," Hilda returned, glad to have got him off the subject of Flavia. Inspector Letton was due before long. If she could just keep Barr talking-

"I believe you," Barr said, rather surprisingly. "No. You may fear death in the way that any sane person does, but it doesn't terrify you. What does?"

Hilda remained silent.

"I'll tell you, shall I? The eradication of your personality, your mind, your abilities- that frightens you, doesn't it? Does that thought not terrify you, Hilda Annersley?"

"You cannot know that." The Head kept her voice perfectly neutral; even, slightly amused- the same tone that she sometimes used when rebuking Middles. It never failed with the girls. Anger, they could deal with. Being laughed at was unbearable.

"Perhaps. Not that it matters, for you see, this"- he indicated the matrix again- "can do all of that. Or it could kill you. In addition, if it is activated, it will harm every female redhead on the Platz- and in Zurich."

For the first time, the Head whitened. "Zurich? But- that's where-"

"Where Valerie Gardiner and the rest of her little pals are. Exactly."

"How will it harm them?" the Head asked, distracted from wondering how Barr had managed to discover the destination of Upper IVa.

"Together they will form part of a living matrix. Only someone who is keyed into this particular gun- seeming matrix will be able to control or touch them without harm." He paused deliberately before adding, " Such an attempt by any other will be futile- and fatal."

Len and Flavia ran into school through the French window in the Head's salon, despite Flavia's protests. Len had taken the time to glance in through the study window as they passed, and had gathered something of the situation there. It had taken more effort than Len liked to think of to keep going.

"We're here, Leonie!" she gasped as they entered the office.

Leonie turned, and Flavia's eyes widened.

The Keeper crossed the room to them. "We need a circle," she said urgently. "He has a fifth-level matrix in there, and we are only three." She cast a glance to Len, and Len knew what she thought but did not say.

-Only three, and one is untrained!

Flavia flushed, and Len saw that the younger girl had heard the unspoken thought. But there was no time to deal with that now. She removed her own matrix and sat down, carefully distanced from Leonie.

"You must not touch Leonie," Len whispered to Flavia she sat down. "That's why she wears the crimson- to remind us that she is dangerous to touch whilst we work- like an electric current."

Puzzled, Flavia nodded. She had so many questions- and now it was too late to ask them. All she could do was obey.

Leonie was trying, quickly and desperately, to think. There was no relay here. She doubted that a user as inexperienced and untalented as the man in the next room would be able to detect their presence. All the same- that was a powerful matrix, and she had not needed the information given to the Head to understand the implications.

She sat down in her turn and retrieved her own matrix- and it flared into life. A voice Leonie had thought never to hear again spoke to her across the galaxies.

-Leonie! We are here. We know what is happening. You need a circle, and-

-Callista! Leonie returned, too astonished to say more.

Callista Lanart-Carr, once under-Keeper at Arilinn, continued.

-You need a full circle for this work, Kiya, she admonished gently. We will help- Damon and I.

-You cannot do that, Callista!

-We can, Leonie, came the deeper mental voice of Damon Ridenow. I must remind you, you are no longer Callista's Keeper, and this is my decision to take. A Keeper is responsible-

-Only to her- or his- own conscience, Leonie finished, rather dryly. Very well. Len!

-Leonie? Len's mental voice sounded almost shy as she made mental contact with Damon and Callista through the matrix.

-Step out of the circle. You are needed as monitor.

-I will do that, Leonie, Damon told her firmly. Len must stay where she is.

-Flavia!

-I'm here.

Satisfied that this impromptu circle was now complete, Leonie reached out and grasped, as she had so many times before, the energies swirling around her and focused them into a mental rope of silk- soft, flexible, but unbreakable.

The Head turned still paler as her mind grasped the essentials of matrix technology- and she realised, too, that a trap of some kind had been laid on Valerie, and that this was why the girl had been returned.

"Perhaps you are ready now to hand over Flavia?" Barr asked again.

The Head remained silent. She was sitting facing the window and his back was therefore turned away from it. As a result he did not see Len and Flavia pass on their way to the office- but Miss Annersley had, and the anxiety was crippling her.

"So!" he hissed, as she continued to give him no response. "You understand what will happen and yet you do nothing? You will not give up even one? Very well. You have chosen your own destiny, Hilda Annersley!"

He picked up the matrx-gun and the starstone flared into blue flickering life.

At that precise moment, Hilda was almost blinded a sudden mental vision of Len, Flavia, Leonie and two people she did not recognise...Len held out her hand, and Hilda, startled, took it and felt herself somehow absorbed into a circle. Dimly she knew that now, for a very short period of time, she would be safe, whatever happened.

Bolstered now by Hilda, who had her own strength, and by Callista- one of the most powerful telepaths Darkover had ever known- Leonie realised that now she could make a viable attempt to disarm the matrix in the study before it could harm Hilda's physical body. Quickly, she channelled the energies that allowed Calista, who was reasonably skilled at this work, to alter the conformation of the matrix crystal in the gun. It was a delicate task, but, after a seemingly endless time, they all felt the 'click' as the matrix appeared to fall in on itself, its structure gone.

For a moment it seemed too late; realising the Hilda was not entirely present, the enraged Barr seemed to be about to focus the huge potential of his matrix on her helpless physical body, and just as the matrix appeared to blaze into action, there was a strange fizzle and a violent explosion of blue, crimson and white psi fire ripped through it, throwing Barr to the ground.

At that point, the study door burst open and Inspector Letton exploded into the study.