Star Hunter

black bowl. Ras Hume paused at the border of scented spike-flowers on the top terrace of the Pleasure House to wonder why he thought of serpents. He understood. Mankind's age-old hatred, brou

zen other worlds' foliage planted cunningly on the te

eemed to come out of

peated his ow

Hume lingered for a moment, offering a counterstroke of indifference in what he had always known would be a

tricate carving of a devilish nonhuman set of features was a work of alien art. Tendrils of smoke curled from the thing's flat nostrils, and Hume sniffed the scent of a narc

thought-old, very old. Perhaps rumor was right, Milfors Wass might be truly native Terran and

oval disk of cloudy golden shimmer behind the chair at the long table of solid ruby rock from Nahuatl's poisonous siste

fter his first glance. This interview was to be person to person. If

ce of a man not impressed by stage settings. After all he was

subtle difference between true flesh and false was no hindrance in the use of those fingers or their strength. Save that it had pushed him out of command of a cargo-c

g Tors Wazalitz, who was a third owner of the Kogan-Bors-Wazalitz line, and a Gratz chewer. But one did not argue with the owners, except when the safety of the

zalitz was dead. They dared not try to stick Hume with a murder charge; the voyage record tapes had been shot straight through to the Patrol Council, and the evidence on those could be neither faked n

ssness had always led him to apply for the rim runs, the very first flights to newly opened worlds. Outside of the survey me

a vast difference between lifting a liner from a launching pad and guiding civ hunters to worlds surveyed and staked out for their

plasta-flesh fingers curved, their nails drew across the red surface of the table. And where was Wass? He was about to ri

s. He was dressed most conservatively except for a jeweled plaque resting on the tightly stretched gray silk of his upper tunic at heart level. Unlike Hume

skull trained into a kind of bird's crest. As Hume, his visible areas of flesh were deeply browned, but by nature rather than exposure to sp

on the table, a gesture Hume found himself for som

ed, any more than he was to be in

idea," he

emove his hands from the table. "Perhaps one in a thousand is the kerne

idea in a thousand can also pay off in odds

have su

hakable confidence. He had studied all the possibilities. Wass was the righ

a?" Wass

s a wasted shot. To discover that he had just returned from t

rha

y tricks with words and hints. Either you have made a find worth the

e of them was, don't be greedy. Wass was never greedy, which is why the patrol had never been able to pull him down, and those who dealt with him did not t

Kogan estate-that g

"And how would such a cla

w. "If you supply the claimant, surely you

gation for any such claim now would be made by a verity lab and no imposture

upon the

iscovered

-an L-B from Largo Drift intact and in good shape. From the evidenc

such survivors living

htly. "It has been six planet years, there is a for

slowly, "carrying, among others

s at the time of the Largo Drift'

one-in-a-thousand idea had been absorbed, was now being examined, amplified, broken down into details he cou

rvivors?" Wass attacked

number of seconds after an accident alarm. For what it's worth the hatch of this one was open. It could have broug

u prop

s the story with the case dragging through the Ten Sector-Terran Courts now. Gentlefem Brodie and her son might not have been news ten years a

ice of survivor

, and he would have the survival manual from the ship to study. He could hav

But we shall require an e

We only need a youth of the proper general phy

at Hume's hint had struck home. But when he replied t

to know a

replied, "and I do not always d

n the root of fact beneath the plant of fiction," Wass ackno

for just such an opportun

t forget easily. And that, too, I understand. It is a foible of my own, Out-Hunter. I neither forget nor

n. Wass was silent for a moment, as if to leave time

physical qualifications.

so." Hume

in memories; those

with Jumala,

d. For such family material as is necessary I shall have ready. An interestin

re. There were some techs crooked enough to enjoy such a project for its own sake, indulging in forbidden experimentation. For a mo

do you wis

Hume asked in return, for the seco

. There's research to be

bably before the Guild set

e comes for a safari, there shall also be clients,

e Veep himself was totally unknown. Yes, he could count on an excellent, wel

tonight, or early tom

re of your

ce. A boy who will not be missed, who has no kin, no ties, and

him at once. D

r seconds an address. Hume noted it, nodded. It was one in the center of the port tow

ll be

you will come to this place." Again the palm m

r tape for our use. It ma

rt to make to the Guild, so the materi

gue." At last Wass' right hand came up from the ta

ur desires," Hum

ter. Luck to equal our desires.