Someone has been killing Company Firstmasters and delivering them to Uvanov’s office and home. The Voc robots programmed to make the deliveries have then exploded, leaving no evidence behind. Uvanov goes to the psycho-strategist Carnell for help, but Carnell refuses to make any deductions or predictions without sufficient information. Offended by Carnell’s smugness, Uvanov takes matters into his own hands and sends his security forces to arrest the chief suspect in the murders, an assassin named Kaston Iago who claims to be in town on holiday. Iago escapes, and in the confusion the two security teams accidentally open fire on each other. Nineteen guards are killed in the ensuing firefight.

Iago contacts Uvanov to inform him that he does not appreciate having his holiday interrupted, and Uvanov, realising that Iago is not responsible for the murders after all, offers to hire Iago as his bodyguard and security consultant. As Iago scouts out Uvanov’s home -- and becomes intimate with Uvanov’s personal assistant, Justina -- Uvanov attends a board meeting, and, at Carnell’s suggestion, has them pull all of the most recent voting records for analysis. As Carnell had predicted, this offends Uvanov’s bitterest enemy, Firstmaster Landerchild, who believes that Uvanov is accusing the board of setting up the murders themselves.

After perusing the voting records, Carnell visits Uvanov at his home to discuss his conclusions. There, he meets Iago, who has just ordered a number of expensive security upgrades -- and who reacts oddly when he meets Carnell, as if he knows what a psycho-strategist is. More Firstmasters have been killed, both allies and enemies of Uvanov, and although there appears to be no pattern to the murders, Carnell suggests that this is an attempt to subvert a forthcoming vote sponsored by Uvanov. Though this planet is isolated, its inhabitants are aware of the existence of life on other worlds, and Uvanov wishes the Company to make contact with them, with an eye towards future interplanetary trade. This will eventually destabilise the balance of power on the planet. Both Uvanov’s enemies and supporters have been killed in order to confuse the issue; however, when their replacements are voted onto the council, the vote will be stalemated at best.

If Carnell is correct, the mastermind is either Landerchild or Devlin, depending upon who is murdered next; Landerchild hates the upstart Uvanov, and Devlin has a personal grudge against Firstmaster Maco. Uvanov hides out in his home and sends Iago and Justina to a reception which both Landerchild and Devlin will be attending; while they are there, Maco is poisoned, presumably by Devlin herself. Uvanov takes immediate action by sending his security forces to Devlin’s home with orders to plant any evidence they need to justify their attack. In the confusion, Iago slips ahead of the other forces and assassinates Devlin.