noon
`` This attempt on Dalla 's life occurred while the pre-mortem revels were still going on . She lived in a six-room apartment , with three servants , on one of the upper floors of a three-thousand-foot tower -- Akor-Neb cities are built vertically , with considerable interval between units -- and while she was at this feast , a package was delivered at the apartment , ostensibly from the Reincarnation Institute and made up to look as though it contained record tapes . One of the servants accepted it from a service employee of the apartments . The next morning , a little before noon , Dr. Harnosh of Hosh called her on the visiphone and got no answer ; he then called the apartment manager , who entered the apartment . He found all three of the servants dead , from a lethal-gas bomb which had exploded when one of them had opened this package . However , Hadron Dalla had never returned to the apartment , the night before . '' * * * * * Verkan Vall was sitting motionless , his face expressionless as he ran Tortha Karf 's narrative through the intricate semantic and psychological processes of the First Level mentality .