It was a nasty plot Vyrko was involved in. The worst part was that he constructed it himself—and didn't get the end right! There were three of them in the retreat, three out of all mankind safe from the deadly yellow bands. The great Kirth-Labbery himself had constructed the retreat and its extraordinary air-conditioning—not because his scientific genius had foreseen the coming of the poisonous element, agnoton, and the end of the human race, but because he itched. And here Vyrko sat, methodical