Lion Loose

In seven hours the Seventh Star Hotel, a fading pleasure resort floating where three shipping lanes cross, is scheduled to blow up with twelve thousand people aboard. Reetal Destone knows it, and when she spots Quillan's name on the guest list, she calls him in.

The hotel's manager, Commodore Velladon, has been robbing its owners and has quietly sealed the Star off from the outside. Gunmen of the Brotherhood of Beldon hold the Executive Block with him, waiting for their boss to arrive on the liner Camelot and collect a strange cargo. Quillan means to talk his way inside and set the crooks against each other. The trouble is that someone has already let the cargo out, and the Hlat is loose in the hotel.