The effect was immediate and dramatic. In each case the target’s brain and cerebral fluid boiled, turned to vapor, and blew the encasing skull to bits. The New Prophet was in the middle of his live, planetwide broadcast—literally in the middle of pronouncing the word “heretic”—when 1730 hours arrived. For almost two minutes the TV screens and walls around the planet carried the image of the New Prophet’s headless body slumped over the microphone.
