It has been 20 years since Askone joined the Foundation’s trade empire and 75 years since the last Seldon Crisis was resolved with Wienis’s defeat on Anacreon. Terminus City mayoral secretary Jorane Sutt informs Smyrnian Master Trader Hober Mallow that three trading ships armed with nuclear weapons disappeared recently among the planets of the Korellian Republic. Only another nuclear-armed ship could have overpowered them; the mystery is how the non-nuclear Korellians managed to commandeer such ships. Perhaps a traitor smuggled the weapons to the Korellians on behalf of an anti-Foundation resistance movement. Mallow takes umbrage at the implication that he is the traitor. Sutt assures him that he cares only about Mallow’s trading expertise with Outlanders, and that he wants him to spy on them for the Foundation. He reminds Mallow that two of the lost ships are Smyrnian. Mallow takes the assignment.

After the meeting, Sutt goes to the mayor who has been listening from his office. They agree that Mallow “could be a good actor” and may still be the traitor (172), but they are not sure.